Hello, my name is Cynthia. I am here with Jesus doing an oral history
interview for the project Undocumented Voices. It is April 23rd, 2015 and
I'm here at C Hall at the A U Tempe campus. Hello, Jesus. Could you please
state your name and give me your formal consent that we can use this
interview? Yeah, my name is Jesus Meros and I provide you my consent.
Thank you. Uh for starters. Could you tell me something more about your
personal background? Yeah. Sure. Uh So I was born in Ciudad Juarez,
Chihuahua Mexico and I came here to the United States when I was six years
old. Um I didn't become naturalized until the age of 16. Almost. It was
almost a 10 year process for me to go through uh immigration and family
immigration processes specifically. And so I consider myself um one of the
lucky ones, right? Uh in the sense that my dad and I were the only ones
that were born in Mexico uh were able to be petitioned by my mother. Um So
that's kind of a little bit of my background. There's five people in my
family and um that's within my immediate family and within my extended
family. Um I do have relatives that are undocumented. Um I grew up in a
predominant Latino border town and so immigration issues were not very
uncommon. How was your experience of being born and growing up in Mexico?
Yeah. So I think because I came here at such a young age and I started
first grade here all the way to where I am now. I think I remember
struggling at the beginning only because of I grew up in a border town. So
I really moved from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua to El Paso Texas. And that
was, I mean, the border is right between us. But I think the greatest
challenge for me was coping with the stigma of being born on the other
side of the border. I think even though it was a predominantly Latino
community in El Paso, there was this inherent stigma towards those who
were born in Juarez. It's like it, it was almost like a class system,
right? So you were less than if you were born in Juarez. Um And so I
remember growing up hiding that, hiding the fact that I, I was not a US
citizen and that I was not born in the U si remember lying a lot of the
time um in in school when people would ask where, where I was born or
whenever we had projects like that, just because I wanted to avoid the
stigma, the bullying, the harassment and so forth that was often imposed
upon, you know, immigrant Children based on their accent, their skin color
and their place of birth. How was your experience going to high school? Um
You know, to be honest with you, um immigration or my immigrant experience
, I think I just kind of repressed it and I didn't really think about it
or talk about it beyond when I was asked where I was born. Um And I think
a lot of that had to do with the fact that it was a predominant Latino
environment. And so it was almost taken for granted, like everyone had
some kind of immigrant experience. And so for me, I didn't really come to
embrace my immigration story until I got to college. And that's because
being in college helped me understand the value and diversity, the value
in being different and coming from a different country, coming from a
different background and so forth. And so it really shifted from coming uh
within a predominantly Latino environment to coming to a more diverse,
predominantly white environment. Um but also with a strong international
student presence. And so I think that's what propelled me to really
embrace, you know, what I was born in Mexico and, and that's cool, like
there's nothing wrong with that. Um But high school, I think for me, it
was just, you know, just like every other student, I didn't have to
struggle or think about anything in terms of limitations because like I
said, I was lucky enough to be petitioned by my mother. And so even though
that process took 10 years, I was protected through legal permanent
residency. Right. And so I, I really didn't have anything to compare to
other students. I wasn't aware of undocumented students. I wasn't aware of
undocumented issues. And that's partly because I was so involved with my
own education. Uh I think for me, it was very important to finance my way
through to college. And I think that was inculcated by my parents. Um what
we refer to as a sacrifice, you know, that our parents make moving to
another country and with the that intent being that their Children, me, my
sister, my brother and I um that we are able to get an education, obtain a
career and surpass, you know, the conditions that we were living in. We
were very, coming from a very humble background. And part of the reason
why um my parents tell me that we left where I was at is because it was a
very unsafe environment. Um We didn't really have a house. We were
constantly like moving around. Um My, my dad struggled to find jobs and my
mom was working as a cashier as a clerk within a Super Center. But I mean
, that didn't pay the bills for five people. And so when my mom had the
opportunity to,
to become naturalized. Um She really took that as an opportunity to kind
of bring the family over and start over with uh an environment that was
more conducive economically to what we needed. What kind of education did
you receive?
Um in K 12? Yeah, or in, in higher education.
So I went to Gaston High School in Anthony, New Mexico. And I have to say
I was, I was very blessed to always be surrounded by amazing teachers. Um
amazing teachers who really challenged me to think about who I was and
what I, I contributed um beyond what I was able to understand about myself
at the time. And that really propelled me to think about. Um I always knew
I wanted to go to college, but I never knew why or for what I just knew I
wanted to go to college because my parents wanted me to go to college. Uh
But I think that really pushed me into more of the engineering. That's,
that's when I went into my undergrad seeking to study. However, uh that
was only because I was good at math. And I was told that I was good at
math and I was told that there weren't a lot of Latinos in engineering and
so forth and trying to get us into stem fields and so forth. Um And even
though I was good at it, it just didn't drive me, it didn't fill me, it
wasn't my passion. So I I ended up um changing my major to journalism and
mass communications with an emphasis in public relations. And I think that
was just kind of
to give me something to do. Um what I found was really driving my passion
was working with students on campus. So while I was at New Mexico State
University, I worked as a resident assistant. So I lived on campus in the
in the residence halls and I did social academic uh diversity programming
for students. And it was amazing, I loved it. I loved the aspect of being
able to engaged students, being able to organize students, right? Uh for
different purposes. And so when I found out that there was actually a
career in student affairs Higher Education Administration, that's when I
decided to pursue my masters in Higher Education Administration, Student
Affairs. And so for that, I went to Texas A and M University and that's
when I really became involved in student affairs uh advising and housing.
That's where I worked. I went from working as a student in housing to
working as a paraprofessional in housing. Um The thing about being at
Texas A and M University is that, that was another cultural shift, right?
Because I went from Las Cruces, New Mexico where there's still a strong
Latino presence to College Station, Texas where um it was a lot harder to
find other Latinos on campus. And so I think that's the first time that I
was really able to question, you know, what am I? Because prior to that, I
think I had also taken my race for granted because everyone around me
looked like me. But at College station, the majority of the people around
me did not look like me, they were black or white. And I think Latinos
were not as visible. And so when I was there, that's when I really started
to develop my identity as, as a Latino because I understood what it meant
for what I finally understood what it meant to be a minority because I
really was a minority and I stood out and
yeah, it was, it was just one of those experiences that I look back at and
I wonder, I wonder why it took me so long to really understand myself as a
Latino and what that meant. So that was also the time we got really
interested in education. Yeah. So education definitely uh student affairs
, I mean, that's all it is. It's about helping um students develop through
college, whether that's their racial identity development, their sexual
identity development, their ethical moral um and so forth. So I think even
just being in that program and preparing myself to work within the field
of higher education and student affairs that helped me personally to
really come into terms with um my racial identity, my immigrant background
and then eventually my sexual identity as well. That's when I came out as
um as queer um LGBT Q and it was during um my education at San University.
When did you first became aware about the um undocumented issue? Yeah. So
after I graduated from Texan University, I worked in housing and
residential education for about a year in Florida. And
after that, I think I, I realized that I wasn't done with my education. I
felt that what I was doing, which was administration at the time. It, it
didn't really complete me. I knew that I liked being in the classroom. I
knew that I liked working with students and I know that the higher that
you go up in administration, the less you work with students directly. And
so I came back for my doctorate in education policy and evaluation because
I knew that I wanted to be a professor. I knew that I wanted to be in the
classroom and I knew that I also wanted to do research that was um
conducive to challenging some of these uh environments in which we
function. And, and so that was here at Arizona State University, I was
accepted. And when I got here, I think that was another uh environmental
change for me, right? Because I was back in a predominantly Latino
environment, at least in the community. But that demographic was not as
represented at the university. And then I came to understand why that was
, and that's because of the social political context of Arizona and, and
mind you this was after the passage of SP 1070. And so I think at the
forefront of my arrival here, I was already conscious of the fact that um
there was racial profiling practices that there was a lot of allegations
that there was a lot of policing, there was targeting of Latinos
specifically, but even more specifically of immigrants and undocumented
immigrants. More so and so just becoming aware of these social issues uh
drove me to really just understand and then working within the community
as soon as I got here, I wanted to be involved um because I didn't know
anyone here, I didn't have a family. And so I went to the queer
undocumented immigrant project. And that was an organization that really
brought together issues of immigration and sexual orientation, gender
identity. And so being involved with this organization, that's when I
really began to understand really what it meant to be a Latino within the
context of Arizona, what it meant to be an immigrant within the context of
Arizona. And then the limitations imposed on undocumented immigrants just
based on their immigration status. And at that time, it was not being able
to qual. Well, at that time, actually, uh deferred action for childhood
arrivals had it passed. And so that was everything from no access to in
state tuition, state based financial aid, not even in the community
college, it was not being able to work, it was not qual for a state ID or
um driver's license as well as qualifying for state public benefits. And
so coming from an immi immigrant background, identifying with an immigrant
family, it, it was one of those things where it just seemed very unjust
and it, it seemed very targeting of specific populations. And I think
social justice has always been something that has undergirded my work and
my passion for being in education. And so, uh I brought that into my
studies here at a su um within the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College,
really embedding social justice specifically for immigration and LGBT Q
issues into my studies uh into education policy and seeing the ways that
intersected with these social political issues. And that essentially led
me, me and a friend to create a educational program here which we named
Dream Zone. And so Dream Zone is a program and it's an educational
workshop that we develop to increase part um faculty, staff, student
leaders and even the community members knowledge um of immigration issues
as they impact educational processes for students, for teachers, for
individuals that work with students. And so it's really trying to increase
their uh multicultural competencies for working with students and making
sure that we are providing educational success for everyone regardless of
immigration status. What do you think are those specific tools and comps
uh people attain while they attend Dream Zone? Yeah. So I think the way
that we molded the program was more of becoming socially aware, becoming
socially conscious and critically conscious, right? So for us, it starts
with understanding where you come from and understanding where you believe
these issues um come from. So understanding yourself what you believe,
where uh these beliefs and values come from and then really challenging
them right? Beyond what we challenge ourselves every day. So it's
understanding ourselves and then understanding the context in which we
live in, not only the state of higher education within Arizona, but also
across the country. Um How that impacts issues of access, of affordability
, of um retention, um matriculation as well. And then beyond understanding
the context, also understanding our responsibilities to,
to serve as allies, right? So what is it that we can do within the scope
of our positions to really assist students that we work with at the end of
the day, as higher education practitioners, student affairs, um
professionals, we we work with students here regardless of the race,
religion, disability, right? Ability, uh immigration status. And so it's
important that we're competent and we're informed about issues that
directly impact the lives of students because otherwise we we we're doing
a disservice to students who are paying their tuition to be here, who
often don't qualify for federal financial aid, state based financial aid
in state tuition. And so that's already a lot of obstacles that they're
jumping through to be in higher education. And so the least that we could
do is provide them adequate services um and support who uh comes to dream
zone, who participates. Yeah. So the majority of our participants I have
to say are staff. Uh So these are individuals that work within the
university, outside of the university. K 12 institutions that work
directly with students. A lot of it is student affairs um services. Um But
we also get some faculty that do research on these issues. Um We get a lot
of student leaders who want to better understand these issues. And then we
get a lot of graduate students as well who I think during their graduate
programs are beginning to understand these issues and incorporate them
into their social justice work as well. So the majority is staff, student
Affairs, staff personnel and then I would say it's students, student
leaders and then it, it's faculty and of course, the community is invited
throughout. Yeah. How do they uh experience Dream Zone. Yeah. Um Well,
Dream Zone is a four hour workshop and it sounds like a really long
workshop, but it's a lot of content, right? And it's not just content,
it's a lot of self reflection. It's a, it's about assessment and it's
about uh commitment, commitment to helping transform the campus
environment, the campus climate to be more reflective of inclusion of
social justice. And so it's like I said, it's a, it's a process that we
take every uh from starting to understand ourselves to understanding our
uh our context. And then more importantly, we don't do this as um like
advocating for students, right? We do this with students with undocumented
students. And so undocumented students are an integral part of dream zone.
They help facilitate, they share their stories. They provide
practitioners with very um intentional efforts that they could do to
better improve their their college experiences, to improve campus climate
for other immigrant students for other undocumented students. So it's a,
it's a collaboration between the participants of Gene Zone and
undocumented students. Absolutely. So a lot of what it provides is that
opportunity for individuals who maybe are not connected to immigration
directly because they're 3rd, 4th, 5th generation immigrants. And you know
, we forget our immigration story. Um So it's, it's really provided an
intentional effort for practitioners or faculty for students to interact
with undocumented students who are currently going through the limitations
of their immigration status.
Uh Do um In what way, for example, do the participants of Dream Zone help
out the undocumented students? So I think beyond just informing yourself
and becoming a better ally, a lot of what we do is network building. And
so we're creating a network of allies. And so the way that participants
help undocumented students both directly and indirectly is by connecting
them to resources, whether personal or professional and or creating
visibility on campus of individuals who are
willing and able to talk about immigration issues, uh to talk about how to
help individuals who are trying to apply for, you know, work study as a
deferred action recipient or how to apply to housing and residential
education, you know, um and other services. So it's really allowing
practitioners to incorporate their everyday expertise in student affairs,
student services and connecting that to students needs for accessing these
services. So you mentioned that Dream Zone builds a whole network of
allies is dream zone actively involved with any other organizations and
our projects. Yeah. So what we do is in collaboration with the Arizona
Dream, a coalition with the queer undocumented immigrant project as well
as other local organizations. Um We bridge the gap between the community
and higher education. So we we think of Dream Zone as a Knowledge
Mobilization initiative where we are bringing experts in their own, right
, right? And undocumented immigrants who are able to talk about their
experiences navigating higher education, trying to access higher education
or life after higher education, right. How do you get a job and so forth?
And then we supplement that with uh research that is done by our faculty
that um is responding to immigration issues that is responding to the
intersection of immigration and higher education issues and how it impacts
the lives of students and practitioners. Student Affairs practitioners
specifically. So we try to create shared learning environments where these
conversations take place and where participants are able to take it out
into their communities and share what they learned and then hopefully
invite others to come and partake in the learning.
Are you aware of how many undocumented students that are currently
enrolled in Asia? I'm not, you know, and, and I think the difficulty
behind that is because unless someone discloses their undocumented status
to you, you wouldn't know that they're undocumented or that they come from
an undocumented family. Right? Because I think um a lot of our students,
even if they are citizens there, that doesn't mean their parents um may be
citizens or, or have a legal permanent residency and so forth. And so we
see that with a lot of students, their parents are still undocumented. And
so it's, it's one of those issues that drives a lot of students to
participate and to push for these efforts on campus. So we don't have
specific numbers. We know several students, right? That help out with
Dream Zone. And that's how we are able to um connect with them via these
spaces that we create. But in terms of specific numbers, I don't know. All
I know is that over the past couple of years, those numbers uh have
dwindled. And that's because there's been less access to financial
opportunities, both private and um like through donors and stuff. So it
makes it a lot harder for students to pay 300% tuition as out of state
students because they don't qualify for in state tuition as a result of
proposition 300 then, um, you know, we're, we're currently working to try
to lower that right to where we can get uh the Arizona border regions to
really side on the side of um the morally correct thing to do the
economically correct thing to do the socially correct thing to do and
provide in state tuition to um at least different action recipients who
now have legal presence in the state of Arizona. And so that's, it's
almost like a a loophole of Proposition 300 right? Because they're no
longer undocumented, they have legal presence. And so we're, we're trying
to create opportunities for students to have access to higher education.
Could you describe your work with the boards of regions? Um So I don't
work directly with them, right? So in my capacity as a student, what a lot
of what we're doing here on campus is create visibility of student support
for access to higher education, for um undocumented students for DACA
recipients. So a lot of the mobilization that we've been doing, a lot of
the organizing that we've been doing on campus has revolved around student
organizations. Uh student leaders coming out and showing support for
undocumented students access to higher education at an in state tuition
price. And so a lot of what our messaging conveys is that DACA recipients
have legal presence and so they are entitled to in-state tuition at 100%.
Uh the ticket price, right? Versus the 300% that they're having to pay now
as out of state tuition. Uh Yeah, through out of state tuition. I'm sorry.
Could you tell me a bit more about the recent protest? You guys? Yeah. So
we organized a solidarity walk and this was a couple of weeks ago and the
solidarity walk again was to bring student leaders and student
organizations out um and show visible support for in state tuition,
tuition, equality for DACA recipients. And so over the past couple of
months, I think uh organizations within the community have come out in
support for these issues. I think uh different leaders within the
community, different even leaders within the state have come out in
support for in state tuition. And so what we wanted to convey was that
there are a lot of people that are in support of these issues and we want
to show you that as a student body, we also support these issues. And as
you take up decisions in the next couple of months about tuition, tuition
rates and so forth, we want you to know that as a student body, we
collectively support in-state tuition, tuition equality for DACA
recipients at 100%. And so it's really trying to demonstrate that as, as
sun devils, um we don't leave any Sun devil behind, right? And we're a
family. And so it's important that we convey our support of each other
dream zone has been very successful over the years. Um Could you tell me a
little bit more about um how the project was received in the wider
community? So I think over the past we're going on three years now that
we've had dreams on the Arizona State University. Um over this course,
we've had over 1000 300 participants go through a four hour workshop. And
so I think that, that says a lot about the interest that we've received in
learning about immigration and its intersection with higher education
issues and even K 12 issues. Um It's also been received very well by K 12
institutions. So we facilitated different workshops for specific schools
for counselors within school districts and even within um teacher
conferences, right? Or, or uh teach for America has been another
organization that has asked us to facilitate Dream Zone for their, their
core of teachers here locally in Arizona. And so we've been able to embed
dream zone with within a lot of our community work or um on campus work.
And then even at a state, so Dream Zone has been a workshop that we've
implemented at other state universities. So the University of Nevada in
Las Vegas, uh Colorado State University, Fort Collins, New Mexico State
University. And we've also shared um our curriculum with other
institutions, right? So that they can have their own student leaders
implement similar type workshops based off of our curriculum, our success
and even our, our model, right? And so it it's really amazing to see
similar programs take root in other institutions of higher education and
even K 12 institutions, right? Um So it, it's been very exciting for us to
see how higher education leaders have really taken a stance to support and
stand with undocumented students and advocate on behalf of tuition
equality in many of these states which currently doesn't exist. Um more
specifically in, in March 2013 dream zone was in the national spotlight
after winning the sweet 16 bracket competition of the Clinton Global
Initiative University. So could you tell me a bit more about that
competition as well? Yeah, I forgot about that. So this was maybe 20 wow.
Going on three years already, like two years ago, I think um my
co-founder and I, we submitted a proposal for the Clinton Global
Initiative. And so this is a program that seeks to provide
uh local solutions to global problems. And so we submitted Dream Zone as a
response to the educational inequalities that we saw to the anti immigrant
social political context that we live in. And so it was really seeking to
just bridge the gap between higher education in the community and this by
providing accessible information, knowledge, mobilization efforts and
making research accessible, making knowledge accessible to community
members to higher education practitioners and so forth. Uh We were
selected as a top 16 finalists uh based on some rubric that they use, I
don't know. And so part of that challenge for us um
went to so what happened is after we were selected as the top 16 finalists
, it was like the best, most innovative solutions. It went out to the
public. And so the public got to choose their favorite um solutions to
these social issues. And so then after that, we made top eight, you know,
based on the public's votes and people voting online uh this nationally,
right? And then we made top four. And then uh we, we won, we, we got first
place for the Clinton Global Initiative. And it was very exciting for us
because it really affirmed the work that we were doing and it affirmed the
interest. Um not, not only among students, even though this is like a
college, essentially a college student population that's responding to
these issues, but also just nationally, it really spoke to the need for
these type of interventions within educational institutions, both K 12 and
higher education. How do you see the future of Dream Zone evolving? So,
right now, I think our conversations are going to uh how do we
institutionalize this program or similar type programs within the
university so that it's not reliant on the volunteerism and the passion of
, of students, you know, um One thing I didn't say before is that Dream
Zone started as a student led initiative and to a certain extent, it still
is, many of us are still students. Uh some of us are also um we play
different roles within the university. Some of us work as staff, some of
us work as um adjunct faculty, right, within specific classes. And so we
don't get paid to do these educational workshops, you know, and to date,
we've done, I think the last number was 56 we've done 56 total workshops
um within the university. And that's not including workshops that we
facilitate for specific groups outside of the university, uh which has,
has also been many, many workshops. And so it's great that we have such an
active um group that is passionate about these issues and that's willing
to commit their time, their energy, their, their passion into fulfilling
the mission of, of dream zone. But I think um in line with economic
justice, right? It's also about how do we institutionalize these type of
efforts so that we can also pay individuals that are, that are doing this
work because it's exhausting, right? And it's, it's a lot of time that we
put into this work. Um And it's self gratifying. I think the work speaks
for itself and it's great to feel like you're making an impact in someone
else's life, even if it's just one person or a whole group of 40 which,
you know, is typically the size that we work with. Um But I think more
than that, I think it's, it's being smart about how to do this work and
how to build capacity and increase um the,
the number of workshops that we can facilitate because right now, we're a
small group of, I believe five people. And so for five people, I think
we've done a really great job uh until now. And so how do we build
capacity moving forward? Are you involved with any other organizations or
project besides the dream zone on campus? Uh I'm part of several student
organizations and I think that's the, that's what I utilize, right as a
student, like my, my student capacity. So I, I was president of the Latino
Graduate Student Alliance on campus. I'm the vice president of the
Graduate of Professional Student Association. Um And then I also
participate in other student groups uh in just a member basis, right? But
I think using my roles within these positions within these organizations,
I'm sorry, it has also been an opportunity to engage our membership and
increasing our consciousness about these social issues. So really
supporting other efforts on campus that other student organizations are
doing or even that Dream Zone is doing and supporting it with our
membership from these organizations so that we can start mobilizing other
students who are within our graduate programs, who are within our
classrooms and so forth. So it's, it's really putting a student face to
these issues and off campus and off campus, the queer undocumented
Immigrant project, familia trans queer liberation Movement. Um And then I
also support efforts from Arco um as well as uh United We Dream. So could
you tell me a bit more about the second organization you mentioned? Yeah.
So Familia Transport Liberation Movement is an organization based out of
California. And so what they're doing is over the past year, they've kind
of built small, I don't want to say chapters because it's not chapters but
small pockets of activists of leaders that are Latino. So this is
intersecting more Latino and LGBT Q issues. But part of many of our Latino
experience is immigration. And so we talk about immigration um a lot,
right? So uh working with them has been also an opportunity to learn about
transgender issues, right? Within immigration detention centers, uh about
, you know, the criminalization of LGBT Q members, the criminalization of
undocumented immigrants within uh state laws and policies, the inhumane
practices, you know, dragnet policing immigration enforcement policies.
And so I think being involved with these different organizations in the
community and even the Arizona Dream a coalition, right? It really,
it makes all of this more real beyond just research beyond just talking
about issues theoretically or conceptually, I think it also puts the face
of individuals who are directly affected by this and that's what makes
this work powerful that you are
helping individuals um by helping change the environment, the climate. Ho
how do you feel about the current legislation that is available for
undocumented people? So for example, DACA, I think DACA was a great first
step towards
allowing individuals to eligible individuals, right? Because it's very,
it's very selective, but it's a great first step for helping them work for
relieving some of the fear of deportation that a lot of our community
faces. Um But like I said, it's, it's very limited in scope, right? It
only benefits
individuals who came here before the age of 16. You know, you're dreamers
, it helps dreamers and, well, that's great. Um I think it also creates um
different categories of undocumented immigrants now, right? Because in
saying that dreamers are more deserving of some type of relief,
you're automatically positioning their parents and anyone who's not a
dreamer as undeserving. And so it becomes politics of deserving this,
right? So who's a good immigrant, who's a bad immigrant? And so I think
that's part of the problem that we're facing today that it's, it's a
continual criminalization of our community even through positive efforts
like DACA or the expansion of DACA or D the DAPA, right, which hasn't been
implemented either. But I think these are, these are great steps, but I
think more, more great would be finding ways in which we can create
greater inclusion of,
of our community. And then beyond that, also not criminalizing our
community, right? Because we have to understand that being undocumented
alone, being LGBT Q and even the intersection of these two issues. Um One
prior to DACA, A, a lot of our community wasn't able to work, you know,
and so there was different issues. Uh there was different means of
survival that, that drove people to the informal economy, you know, sex
works, um survival, sex, right? Um and then hormone access to hormones,
access to hormone therapy, to, to different things, right? This is
specific to like um LGBT Q issues, right, within the undocumented
community, but having to survive via these means because you don't have a
pathway to citizenship because you don't have a pathway to work or to
safety, right? Which is I think what undergirds all this that criminalizes
you even further because that's what, that's what pushes people.
Yeah, and that's what exposes our community to police, you know, to
detention and so forth. And so simply having that on your record
disqualifies you for D A for any type of relief, right? That's currently
been proposed. And so how do we destigmatize,
you know, detention and prison within our community? Understanding that
these are the consequences of
learning to survive within the environment in which we've pegged um
undocumented immigrants. Do you support comprehensive immigration reform?
Absolutely. I think um I think everyone should have a pathway to
citizenship and uh the opportunity uh regardless of the criminal record,
regardless of the age that they came into the US and regardless of their
sexual orientation, sexuality.
So, absolutely, how do you see the, the future for Arizona evolving, you
know, uh I think for Arizona to transform into a more inclusive
environment. We have to do away with policy that is restrictionist and
that directly targets undocumented immigrants. So, SB 1070 the local
enforcement of federal immigration um policies is I mean, the effects of
it are more detrimental than I think the intended um
the intent behind passing SB 1070 same as proposition 300. I mean, what
sense does excluding a large population of our state undocumented
immigrants from higher education? How, how much sense does that make to
the state economy, to our society, whether we want to or not undocumented
immigrants will always be part of our communities. And so we live in the
state, we all share the community, we all share the state economy. What
sense does it make to exclude them from access to higher education where
they can um get a degree, obtain a career, you know, contribute to the
economy and like higher levels and they're able to without an education.
And then of course, that also means finding a pathway to legalization for
them as well so that they're able to put their degrees into, into practice.
And I think that extends beyond DACA because DACA is a two year program
and at any point it can end and then everyone's undocumented again. And so
it's, it's not a permanent solution, but you see the future evolving for
the best, I think with the leaders that we have in the state and I think
the the passion that many of us carry. I see us changing policy to reflect
the needs of our communities in very positive ways because uh we, we will
continue to, to challenge anti-immigrant anti LGBT Q policies that
directly target us. OK. Well, then thank you for this interview, Jesus. No
, you're welcome.