What we’ve been up to: A year of undocumented organizing for the future
Reflections from Movimiento Cosecha at the end of 2021.
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This past year has been an important, challenging time for Cosecha, an immigrant-led movement fighting for permanent protection, dignity, and respect. Here is a look behind-the-scenes for our supporters about the work we did — with your help — in 2021.
Dignity and respect under the Biden administration
In 2021, President Biden took office after campaigning on a moratorium on deportations and a pathway to citizenship. Because undocumented immigrants have heard empty promises from Democrats for over 30 years, Cosecha organizers knew better than to put our faith in Biden. Instead, we put our faith in each other and continued to organize our communities.
On May 1, we mobilized hundreds of immigrant workers and families to D.C. to demand “papers, not crumbs” from President Biden. Why “papers, not crumbs?” Because it was time to send a powerful message that we aren’t falling for the same old strategy of dividing our community by protecting some immigrants while criminalizing and excluding the rest.
At the local level, Cosecha New Jersey kept up the fight against ICE enforcement by joining other groups in a series of anti-deportation campaigns as well as direct actions to expose the cruel treatment of ICE detainees.
Click here to make a donation to Cosecha to support the ongoing fight for papers, not crumbs.
Growing our field organizing program
To actually win permanent protection, dignity, and respect for all undocumented immigrants, we know we must continue to lead local campaigns in states across the country to mobilize workers and families and develop our top immigrant organizers.
Throughout the last year, Cosecha’s “Drive Without Fear” campaigns for access to driver’s licenses continued with creative mobilizations and actions in Massachusetts, Indiana, and Michigan.
Indiana organizers marched over 300 miles across the state in the “Walk for Licenses” while Massachusetts organizers ended the year with a holiday action at the statehouse, where children wrote letters to confront their representatives about stalling the “Licenses for All” bill.
We were able to grow our field program this year because Cosecha increased the amount of direct financial support we give to local immigrant leaders. Leader stipends, on average $800/month, allow committed undocumented organizers to give more hours to their local Cosecha work while still supporting their families.
Leader stipends have been so effective at supporting local campaigns and organizers that we want to double down in 2022 and fund more of them. Please consider making a monthly donation so that you can directly support an immigrant organizer throughout all of 2022! Even small donations of $3 or $5 a month help sustain our leaders.
There are honestly too many highlights from our field work to mention, so I also invite you to check out these end-of-year messages from Cosecha leaders to learn about our work in Indiana, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and El Paso, TX in their own words.
Click here to make a donation to Cosecha to fund more immigrant leader stipends in 2022.
Looking forward to 2022
There is another major project Cosecha took on in 2021 that we aren’t quite ready to share about yet. Perhaps you have noticed that we have been a bit less active on social media the last few months. What we can share is that Cosecha has been undergoing a major internal restructuring and planning phase. In early 2022, we will be publicly launching an unprecedented project that’s been about a year in the making.
The goal of this project is to deepen our commitment to and practice of poder popular (people power) within our movement. As we look ahead towards the second year of Biden’s presidency and the third year of the pandemic, we know our community will need a bold strategy and committed immigrant leadership to win the permanent protection, dignity, and respect that we deserve. That’s why we are building the movement we need to win.
If you are able to, please take a moment now to make a donation to support Cosecha’s organizing in 2022. If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
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Thank you so much for your support of Cosecha’s immigrant organizing. We look forward to continuing our work together in 2022.
Movimiento Cosecha is a national movement fighting for permanent protection, dignity, and respect for all undocumented immigrants. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more.
