Greisa Martínez Rosas, executive director of United We Dream – the largest migrant youth network in the United States – saw a group of students, while leaving school, place a garbage bag over a friend’s head. “They turned him around and around and yelled, ‘Go back to Mexico.’”
He has another memory from that same time, of a phone call he received during his freshman year of college, as he prepared to return home to Texas for spring break in 2007. “My mother said to me, ‘They’ve got him.’ That was there. She and I knew what she was talking about. It was the family’s recurring nightmare that one of us would be separated from our family because he was a migrant.”
Her father, a man then the same age as Rosas is now, 37, who brought her to the United States from Mexico as a child, the carpenter who supported her and her three younger sisters, had been arrested because he didn’t have a license to drive the old pickup truck he drove to work every day. He was subsequently deported.
Rosas’ long journey on the road to activism begins there, in those memories, and it is not over yet. Especially not now: “My story is what gives me the courage and strength to continue, but it is not unique; millions of people have lived it.”
When his father was about to be deported, no one in the family knew anything about the law, lawyers, or how much these things cost. “We had to learn very quickly and, unfortunately, we didn’t get good legal advice.” The $5,000 the family borrowed to avoid deportation was useless. Then life changed. “The breadwinner, the one who brought the money home, was no longer there. My mother had to start working, the bills were impossible to pay, my sisters were little, it was such a difficult time.” The following year his mother was diagnosed with cancer, so Rosas had to drop out of school.
Today she is convinced that the burden a migrant carries is built on the systemic ills of the United States. “It’s the story of how systems work together to make life difficult for migrants,” he says. “It’s not just about migration, but also about access to healthcare and higher education. That’s why I joined United We Dream.”
Since 2010, the organization, whose members are 60% women and 20% identify as LGBTQ+, has worked to help, support and empower young migrants. Now, United We Dream, in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Abundant Futures Fund (AFF), has launched an unprecedented initiative: the Our Neighbors Defense Fund, which aims to raise at least $30 million to financially support legal organizations.
“We decided to do something new for our organizations,” says Rosas. “The hope is that millions of people will feel inspired to do something different right now, to be part of the solution. We know this is an opportunity for those who feel hopeless, who don’t know what to do, or who are perhaps afraid to take to the streets and participate in protests.”
Less than three months had passed since Donald Trump returned to the White House when the new administration made an announcement that would leave many in limbo: Federal programs that supported organizations and groups, which in turn helped thousands of migrants navigate the U.S. justice system, were canceled. Many of these migrants were minors who, without resources, now had to appear before a single judge. The price to pay, according to Rosas, is incalculable.
“The price is also some lives we lost while they were in detention centers, waiting for a lawyer to have a hearing with a judge,” he says. “This is a matter of life and death for many people. Every month we announce the death of about one or two migrants in detention centers, from different causes, but what they all have in common is that they have been detained. This is not normal. Unfortunately, this is a moment that our history books will record, and we all must have an answer to the question: what did you do when people were suffering like this? None of us are safe; the only salvation is to stand together as a community, to reach out to someone else and “This fund and our organization are two answers to how to do it.”
In a country with 11 million families who have at least one member at risk of detention or deportation, where many lack the funds to afford legal representation, this fund, according to its founders, “will help ensure that immigrant families facing the threat of unjust separation, detention and deportation have access to lawyers.” To date they have raised over $12 million. Individual donations totaled approximately $250,000 from approximately 10,000 people across the country.
“This is an opportunity for them to take action, to help our families,” Rosas says. “Today there are undocumented youth in detention centers, children forced to represent themselves before an immigration judge. So this is a legal emergency to ensure due process, which is so fundamental to democracy. Because what is happening will not just affect immigrants, it will affect all of us.”
According to Rosas, the money they receive goes immediately to the organizations they support. “What is striking about this fund is that the money raised comes mainly from private individuals, regardless of whether they have a lot or little.” The activist – who personally felt the impact of deportation and fought more than one battle for the migrant community in the country, including that of the “Dreamers”, which later led her to become a recipient of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) – has no doubt that the United States is experiencing unprecedented events.
“Whoever is in control of this government wants unlimited power, without consequences. Many people came to this country fleeing authoritarian governments, and that’s what’s happening here now. It’s something that has never happened before on this level,” he argues. “It’s not just whether we’re undocumented or undocumented; we’re seeing young people born in this country being detained by ICE, (and the administration is) using immigration to give unlimited power and money to agencies like that. So we need to act with great courage, with great clarity, and understand that it’s not just about undocumented people or migrants, but whether or not we’re going to be able to maintain democracy.”
Rosas felt the weight of the hatred that keeps American society so polarized today. Earlier this year, in front of thousands of listeners, she admitted that she had been living in the country as an undocumented immigrant and yet was “not afraid.” This was enough for several members of the MAGA movement to turn against her after the speech.
“They used my image, called for my deportation and tried to humiliate me. And although I have lived with great fear this year, I am actually not afraid,” he says. “I survived difficult things. I’m not 17 anymore. I was part of a student movement that achieved victories and changed the trajectory of this country. My intention is that even if people are afraid right now, in the future they will understand that we survived together. That’s why I work every day.”
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