Inter-State Borders: Mixed-Status Immigrant Families and Community Activism as Resilience

• In Event: Resisting Carcerality and Border Imperialism (Hybrid)

Abstract

The state of Arizona began the twenty-first century by enacting a series of anti-immigrant legislation such as SB1070 (2009), which represented the racial targeting of undocumented immigrants of Latinx descent. After more than a decade, scholars have focused their attention on the activism by immigrants and allies who have worked to change the political discourse in the state; but less attention has been focused on the inter-state migrations by undocumented immigrants who chose to leave Arizona to much more neighboring immigrant-friendly states in the southwest borderlands. As such, this conference paper asks: What were the reasons long-term undocumented residents of Arizona fled anti-immigrant legislation to more immigrant friendly states and how did they fare in said new locations? This conference presentations builds on qualitative methods to document the experiences of mixed-status families migrating originally from northern Mexico to Arizona and then crossing inter-state borders to New Mexico. In-depth oral histories with undocumented immigrants shed light into confronting xenophobia in the Southwest which creates exclusion in anti-immigrant states and highlights immigrant resilience in crafting community spaces of inclusion in immigrant-friendly states. Finally, findings suggest mixed-status families require further scholarly exploration as cultural heritage producers across international and inter-state borders.

Biographical Information

Rafael Martínez is an Assistant Professor of Southwest Borderlands at Arizona State University. Rafael’s work focuses on immigration, migration, the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, and the American Southwest. His first book with the University of Arizona Press, Illegalized: Undocumented Youth Movements in the United States, analyzes the rise of Undocumented Youth Social Movements in the U.S. and immigrant youth’s contributions to the broader Immigrant Rights Movements. Rafael's work engages in Borderlands Studies to demonstrate how communities along the Mexico-U.S. border contribute to the social, political, and economic fabric of the U.S. Rafael is the Co-Director of the Latinx Oral History Lab at Arizona State University.

Author

• Rafael A Martinez, Arizona State University