How my journey began

It was our very first meeting in a basement room at the Memorial Union building at ASU. The first item on the agenda was figuring out if we were going to remove the sign hanging outside the door that read “Dream Scholars Meet Here”. We had all been in the shadows most of our lives, and just the thought of anyone knowing that a group of undocumented students were gathered, was horrifying. It meant that Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio or ICE could find us and deport us to a country we all had left when we were children. For me, that day was the beginning of a long journey of activism and organizing for my rights and the rights of millions of immigrants in this country. Today, this same mission that I began with this group of undocumented students in 2008, continues to be my passion and the reason why I continue to fight.

As we all sat in that meeting, we began sharing our stories. For the first time since I came to this country, I felt like I was seen and understood by young people who shared the same fears, but also the same dreams, and the same hopes for a better future. I, like them, came to this country as an 11-year-old child with my mother and my four siblings. We had to leave Mexico and cross the Arizona desert by foot to be able to find home and safety away from my abusive father. Like many immigrants, we came with nothing. We moved around from house to house and slept on people’s floors for the first year living in the U.S. My mother, my sister and I would go door to door in the nearby neighborhoods selling tamales. One day, after a really tough day of not being able to sell enough food to make ends meet, I found my mom crying outside. “I can’t do this anymore. We need to go back to Mexico,” she said. I looked into her eyes and said, “Mami, I know it’s been hard, but we can’t go back.” I promised her that day, that if we didn’t leave, I was going to work hard in school, get a great job and that her sacrifices were going to pay off. I promised her that one day, she was going to have everything that she needed to be happy and free in this country. 

That promise I made to my mother always remained in my mind, but being an undocumented student in Arizona was never easy. Despite the odds and the advice from many of my teachers to not bother applying to universities because of my status in this country, I was accepted to Arizona State University with a full scholarship. For my first two years as a college student, I thought all the challenges had passed. I was going to graduate, get a great job, and finally carry out the promise that I made to my mother. Unfortunately, in 2006, Arizona voters passed Proposition 300, which prohibited undocumented students from obtaining in-state tuition and state financial aid. I was crushed. I had worked so hard, and kept a 3.4 GPA, only to be told that my work didn’t matter. I lost my scholarships and was asked to pay more than triple in tuition fees. I was about to drop out of school, but a non-profit organization approached me to offer a private scholarship that would allow me to obtain my bachelor's degree. It was this scholarship for undocumented students that, not only gave me the opportunity to graduate, but also to meet all those undocumented young people in that basement room of the Memorial Union building. That group of students later became the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, and I became their president.

In 2009, I was finally able to graduate Cum Laude with my Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. I was the first one in my family to graduate from high school and the first one to graduate from college. It was a dream come true to see my family in the Sun Devil stadium celebrating my achievement, but I also knew that not having the ability to work was going to prevent me from getting a job. That ASU diploma hanging on my wall was beautiful, but I couldn’t use it. I decided to focus on helping to build the Arizona Dream Act Coalition. We recruited hundreds of students and community members to fight for the DREAM Act, which was a piece of legislation that would have given a path to citizenship to two million people who came to this country as children.

Through this experience, I learned about the legislative process. I became very familiar with organizing and advocacy. I was only 21 years old, but I could already name most of the U.S. Senators and House members. I then joined a national organization of immigrant youth called United We Dream Network in 2010 and became part of their first National Coordinating Committee. In this role, I helped to create a national campaign to pass the DREAM Act. We organized young people to, for the very first time, come out of the shadows and share their stories to humanize the narrative about who we were. The legislation passed in the House of Representatives but failed by 5 votes in the U.S. Senate. This loss was devastating, but in 2011 I, along with a group of youth, helped to lead the organization in creating a new strategy to push for administrative relief for undocumented youth. After a year of organizing and pressuring President Obama, we were successful. In the summer of 2012, the President announced a program that is now known as DACA (Differed Action for Childhood Arrivals).

Thanks to this program, which I fought so hard for, I was finally able to work legally with a social security number. My first job was in the U.S. Congress. I was hired by Representative Kyrsten Sinema as the first known DACA recipient to work for Congress as the Outreach Director in Arizona District 9. I was feeling so proud, but I knew that my family was still in danger of deportation, and without the ability to work. I had promised my mom that I would not stop until she was happy and free, and that sentiment fueled my fire to keep going, keep advocating, and not give up.

In 2016, I saw another opportunity to push for this issue through a political campaign. I was hired as the Press Secretary for Latino Outreach for the Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign, where I helped to create his immigration platform and the national Latino outreach program. I then worked as the Chief Advocacy Officer for RAICES, which provides free legal services and advocates for immigrants and refugees.

Working in the immigrant rights movement as a leader has given me the tools and experience to be able to run and win campaigns. Without any formal training or education in political science or communications, I learned to change narratives through community and digital organizing. I have an undergraduate degree in Psychology but have worked for the past twelve years in advocacy, government, and political campaigns. For me, just like for many other Americans, making this country better is a personal fight. I invite you to also continue to fight for a better, more just and compassionate country for all of us.