Mobilization Strategies Among The Immigrant Rights Movement: An Ethnography of the Central American Undocumented Community

• In Event: Latina/o Criminology Panel 1: Gangs, Communities, and Resistance

Abstract

Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in Los Angeles, California, this paper analyzes mobilization strategies used by Central American undocumented immigrants, immigrant rights advocates, and organizations when the present threat of immigration raids and deportation exists, based on an examination of community meetings and forums at immigrant rights organizations. I reveal how these mobilization strategies shape how undocumented immigrants, immigrant rights advocates, and organizations organize themselves in their city, and impact their relationship with local, state, and federal agencies. Using a legal violence framework (Menjivar & Abrego, 2012), I argue that undocumented immigrants accompanied by immigrant rights advocates and organizations respond to legal violence through organizing and mobilizing against existing immigration laws, policies and enforcement practices. This study moves away from the victimization of immigrants by immigration laws and policies to forms of empowerment and resistance. As such, these strategies demonstrate how both undocumented individuals and advocates interpret and respond to government laws, policies, and enforcement strategies. I highlight six mobilization strategies including: (1) educational and awareness campaigns, (2) social and mass media campaigns; (3) legal representation efforts; (4) non-violent protest and demonstrations; (5) the New Sanctuary Movement and Sanctuary Cities; and (6) “surrogate voting.” These mobilization strategies assist scholars and policymakers in understanding mobilization efforts by immigrant communities in the pre- and post-2016 election periods.

Author

• Jose Torres, University of California, Irvine