Local Battles For Immigrant Rights: Threat and Sustained Mobilization

• In Event: 3270 - Revisiting Threats and Grievances in the Trump Era

Abstract

The Immigrant Rights Movement of 2006 is one of the largest mobilizations for immigrant rights in U.S. history, yet less scholarly attention has been given to these mobilizations in marginalized regions and low-income cities. To develop an understanding of what led to the mobilizations during 2006 in these cities and the sustained mobilization after these historic protests. I conducted a comparative case study analysis of four cities through interviews of key organizers and participants along with newspaper documentation of protest events and secondary sources. Sustained mobilization is examined across the four communities. My findings reveal that the political threat of anti-immigrant law (HR 4437) was present in all communities but the key conditions influencing sustained mobilization include: repressive threat to local population (deportations), pre-existing organizations before 2006 and coalitions.

Author

• Maria De Jesus Mora, University of California-Merced