Programs and Communities

Maria is a United States citizen whose parents just recently obtained legal status in the US due to Maria having turned 21. Maria has been around the undocumented population her entire life due to a large part of her family being undocumented. She became very involved with the undocumented movement back in 2010 with the passing of SB1070 in Arizona. She states that the reason she became so involved at this time was because she realized how these anti-immigrant laws were affecting her family and her community. She has worked on many campaigns at the local level such as the recall of Russell Pierce, the Adios Arpaio Campaign among other things. She is set to graduate from ASU this May 2015 with a degree in Political Science and Transborder Studies, and hopes to study law one day. She currently works with Unite Here a labor union and continues to be involved with varies campaigns some being DACA/DAPA information sessions among other things

In her interview, Monica discusses her association with the Grassroots Leadership Organization and her involvement with DreamZone. She talks about why DreamZone is important and why she is politically inclined. She talks about DreamZone’s Clinton Global Initiative campaign and her involvement at the White House breakout sessions after DACA was signed. She has been involved in sit-ins and letter writing campaigns

Jonathan was born in a small farming town in Maryland. He talks about racism, segregation and the homophobic climate that prevailed in his hometown, and how that informed his activism and that of his parents. During middle school, he got involved in activism around queer youth of color. In the beginning, he was mostly involved in LGBT issues. Later, he also organized around economic injustice in peasant and working class communities.

Dulce attended school in Mexico up until junior high before coming to the United States on a visa. While in high school she became involved with the robotics team at Carl Hayden and thanks to the encouragement by her two teacher she decided to pursue a STEM education at ASU. She was enrolled at ASU already when the law passed and was unaware of any other undocumented student at the ASU campus at the time. It was through the scholarship(s) that were made available to these undocumented student who were already enrolled at ASU that these undocumented students connected. What originally started off as students discussing various topics through blackboard, then google drive, led to the founding of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition (ADAC). She is co-founder for the ADAC and was the acting president for 2 years, now she just volunteers whenever she can, currently running for a position in the upcoming Executive board. She graduated from ASU with a degree in mechanical engineering, but is currently has her own business as a real estate agent for the past 10 years. She is in the process of applying for citizenship.

In his interview, Seth discusses his hometown as well as his study abroad experiences. He describes how he has come to learn about the undocumented youth movement and his role in the DreamZone workshop. He talks about current political reform and his involvement in political discussion in person and on social media. He describes his experience with AZ Quip and how he feels it is included.

Jesus went to Gadsden High School in Anthony, New Mexico. He studied engineering at Texas A&M University, but ended up changing his major to journalism and mass communication with an emphasis in pubic relations. He worked in housing residential education for about a year in Florida, but later moved to Arizona State University to pursue a PHD in education policy and evaluation. Through his work with students and the community, he became aware of the political and social issues in Arizona. This awareness eventually led him and a friend to create DREAMzone.

Jesus is involved with DREAMzone, the Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project (Q.U.I.P.), Arcoíris Liberation Team, and Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement (California). He was president of the Latino Graduate Student Alliance and is currently the vice-president of the Graduate & Professional Student Association.

This report examines how recent immigration policies and immigration enforcement strategies have impacted Latino immigrants in Arizona. Analyses examined the relationship between fear of deportation and the impact of immigration policies on various aspects of daily life of Latino immigrants as a result of US immigration policies. Results indicate that participants who reported a greater fear of deportation were also significantly more likely to report:

1. Trouble keeping a job.
2. Trouble finding a job.
3. Having been asked for immigration documents.
4. That friends have suffered.
5. That their family has suffered.
6. Lower confidence that police will treat Latino immigrants fairly.
7. Lower confidence that the courts will treat Latino immigrants fairly.
8. Lower confidence that they will have a better future.

Implications for social work practice, advocacy, and research are discussed.

This study examined the relationship between the fear of deportation and perceptions of law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and the willingness to report crimes among Latinos in the US. Understanding the relationship between increased immigration enforcement and fear of deportation may promote public safety by improving the relationship between the police and Latino communities.

Multivariate ordinal logistic regression analyses of the data found that participants who had a greater fear of deportation reported:

1. Less confidence that police would not use excessive force (p<.01).
2. Less confidence that police would treat Latinos fairly (p<.05).
3. A lower likelihood of reporting crimes (p<.05).
4. Less confidence that the courts would treat Latinos fairly (p<.01).

Latinas may be unlikely to report violent crime, particularly when undocumented. This research examines the impact of fear of deportation and trust in the procedural fairness of the justice system on willingness to report violent crime victimization among a sample of Latinas (N = 1,049) in the United States. Fear of deportation was a significant predictor of Latinas perceptions of the procedural fairness of the criminal justice system. However, trust in the police is more important than fear of deportation in Latinas’ willingness to report violent crime victimization. Social workers can provide rights-based education and encourage relationship building between police and Latino communities.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the impact of perceived discrimination among Latino immigrants in the context of recent immigration policies and immigration enforcement strategies. Data for this study were drawn from a pilot study (n=213) of adult Latino immigrants living in Arizona during the summer of 2014. The results of multivariate OLS linear regressions indicated greater perceived discrimination was significantly related to reporting:

1. Avoidance of immigration officials.
2. Family has suffered.
3. Friends have suffered.

In addition, greater perceived discrimination was significantly related to lower confidence in a better future for the individual, their families, their children, and the children of today.