Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights

Your bio:

Angelica Salas is an immigrant from Durango, Mexico.  She came to the United States as a child to reunite with her parents, who came to the U.S. to provide a better life for their family.  Angelica comes to her understanding of immigrants and immigration first hand, she and her entire family lived in the country undocumented, experienced deportation and then were able to legalize their status.  Angelica became a U.S. citizen in 2008.  Angelica joined CHIRLA in 1995 and became its Executive Director in 1999.  In her role, she has transformed CHIRLA into a mass membership immigrant led organization that empowers immigrants and their families to win local, state and national policies that advance their human, civil and labor rights.  She has grown CHIRLA into one of this nation’s largest and most effective immigrant rights organizations that organizes, advocates, educates and provides legal services to all immigrants. 

Project name:

Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights

One-line project summary:

CHIRLA seeks to achieve a world with freedom of mobility, full human rights, and true participatory democracy for immigrants and refugees.

Present your project.

CHIRLA’s project aims to eliminate migration legal status as a factor that limits the civil and constitutional rights, legal protections and inclusion of immigrants in the U.S. CHIRLA’s project seeks to engage mixed-status immigrant families, low-wage workers and immigrant students through community education and outreach, organizing, legal services, civic engagement, policy and advocacy, coalition building, and leadership development for youth. For over 33 years, CHIRLA’s programs have supported community leaders to learn how to use their voice and experiences to educate their community and elected officials about policies that most impact their lives. Through its work, CHIRLA has elevated humanity by ensuring communities across the United States understand the value that immigrants bring economically, socially and culturally. In this way CHIRLA realizes its mission of achieving a just society fully inclusive of immigrants.

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What specific problem are you solving?

Record numbers of migrants and refugees have increased across the world in recent years. According to a 2019 United Nations Forced Displacement report, 79.5 million people were displaced at the end of 2019, which also represents the highest number of displaced migrants ever reported. These migration trends are a result of migrants and refugees escaping economic instability, poverty, political conflict, and environmental disasters among other factors. Today, there are 10.5 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., 2.6 million of them live in California, and the most recent data shows that 23% of U.S. born children have at least one foreign-born parent.

As millions of migrants settle in new communities across the world, nonprofit organizations that advocate for their successful integration become critical. Without integration programs, migrants risk segregation and receiving communities lose on the economic and cultural contributions of migrants. This problem results in first and second generation migrants facing severe obstacles to accessing socio-economic upward mobility. CHIRLA works to integrate immigrants into their new community through innovative programs designed to empower immigrants to advocate on their own behalf to achieve legal protections, obtain access to public services and higher education opportunities.

What is your project?

CHIRLA’s project consists of providing a safe platform for immigrants and refugees to learn leadership skills that can help them organize their communities and educate elected officials about their unique challenges as well as the value they bring to their communities. For over 33 years, CHIRLA has been successful at achieving this goal at the local and national level by educating local policy makers to understand the real-life stories from immigrants and how policy changes lead to higher rates of immigrant integration and economic output from these communities. CHIRLA’s work also results in supporting immigrants and refugees to become community leaders via local community work, volunteerism, in the private sector and in the public sector as elected officials representing their immigrant community. Through the leadership of CHIRLA’s immigrant members, large-scale, multi-year private and public investments have been won including: private and public funding to provide legal services, youth programs and civic engagement campaigns. These investments have helped to elevate the socio-economic opportunities of immigrants across California, regardless of immigration status. CHIRLA’s innovative programs also serve as a blueprint for other migrant communities around the world that may be struggling to find a way to successfully integrate into their new communities.

Who does your project serve, and in what ways is the project impacting their lives?

CHIRLA’s project engages mixed-status immigrant families, low-wage workers and students throughout California. Mixed-status immigrants may be undocumented, Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs), naturalized U.S. citizens, and Deffered Action for Chilhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. There are an estimated 10.5 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., of which 2.6 million live in California. Additionally, there are 700,000 DACA recipients in the U.S., 188,420 of them reside in California. CHIRLA’s programs impact the lives of immigrants and refugees by transforming any fear and uncertainty about their future in their new community into action and engagement in their local communities to advocate for policies that elevate their lives. For example, since 1999 CHIRLA runs the Wise Up! high school program to engage mixed-status immigrant students to develop their leadership skills and achieve a higher education. For some students, going through the Wise Up! program is like stepping out of the shadows and into become “undocumented and unafraid”. Many students also come to learn about their undocumented status through Wise Up!, when participating in workshops designed to help them explore their “story of self”.

Which dimension of The Elevate Prize does your project most closely address?

Explain how your project relates to The Elevate Prize and your selected dimension.

CHIRLA’s project works to elevate the opportunities for immigrants/refugees, who are a traditionally left behind population around the world. Like in the U.S., the immigration systems across the world are broken - systems that are not able to provide a humane process for immigrant/refugee integration. In addition, by developing the leadership skills of immigrants/refugees CHIRLA’s work also supports them to elevate their own issues, build awareness and drive actions to successfully integrate into their new community. The Elevate Prize will support Angelica Salas to continue engaging communities on the moral right of adopting immigrant/refugee rights.

How did you come up with your project?

Angelica Salas: I have been working in the field of immigrant rights for over two decades.  I began working at CHIRLA in 1995 because as an immigrant myself, it’s personally important to support the advancement and protection of civil and constitutional rights of immigrants. Most importantly, I wanted to ensure that the sacrifices and contributions to this country made by immigrants were acknowledged through formal means like workplace rights and access to legal status. When I began working at CHIRLA, California was at its most recent peak of racism and xenophobia in modern history.  State voters had passed Proposition 187, a ballot measure denying undocumented immigrants access to basic services, including barring access to public education to undocumented children. Additionally, Proposition 187 required public officials to report undocumented immigrants to law enforcement authorities. It was a hideous period for California, but immigrants and their allies organized and fought against the hateful sentiment and regressive policies, which sought to criminalize immigrants. Fast forward 33 years later, California is now considered a model state for immigrant integration. The many elected officials who supported anti-immigrant measures have been replaced by immigrants and the sons and daughters of immigrants, as our main elected representatives. 

Why are you passionate about your project?

I am passionate about the mission of CHIRLA because my own personal story and experience connects with the experience of the immigrant community CHIRLA serves.  In the children that are currently crossing the border unaccompanied I remember my own journey to be reunited with my parents as a four year old.  I think of the vulnerability of these children and the fear that they are going through as they cross the border.  When I have to talk to a family member of someone who has lost a loved one to deportation, I remember how it felt when I returned home from school to find out my mother had been picked up by immigration authorities in a worksite raid and deported.  When I fight for immigrant worker rights, I think of my mother and father and their struggles as they tried to make a living for us as garment and construction worker respectively.  Everyday that I work at CHIRLA I connect with people that are willing to stand up for their rights and the betterment of their family and take action on their own behalf and on behalf of their communities.  

Why are you well-positioned to deliver this project?

In order to create a set of policies and practices that uphold the value of immigrant communities and respect for their dignity, it is important that real time and energy be dedicated towards that pursuit. Most of my time these days has been dedicated towards defense work against policies that seek to diminish immigrant protections and advancement.  Given everything that is happening in our country, it is critical that real investment be put into a cohesive written vision and recommendations constructed with the input of stakeholders, immigrants, refugees and elected representatives. Thru CHIRLA, I  have worked in immigrant rights for over 25 years, and during that time I have sought to implement policies that move our city and our state forward. I have the experience of working with many organizations, elected officials, philanthropic, religious and labor institutions. I have seen immigration policies improve at the local and state level. I have also worked and advocated arduously to change our immigration laws so that immigrants are formally recognized through immigration reform. CHIRLA has become a national leader in the development of programming and in its advocacy work directly advanced by immigrants themselves. I know the complexity of the issue, the pitfalls and the deep connection of this issue to the very definition of who we are as Americans. I have immigration legislative and organizing experience that I want to use to develop a written plan for the future that California and the nation deserves.

Provide an example of your ability to overcome adversity.

In 2004, CHIRLA was not able to renew a contract with the City of Los Angeles to continue to run the centers that it had founded.  The reason for the renewal was that the City did not see that CHIRLA was going to overcome its financial difficulties. CHIRLA had used significant reserves to open up these day laborer centers and the City of Los Angeles did not reimburse significant costs associated with the opening.  I was a new mom having just given birth to my first child and I had to return to work to deal with this dire situation.  Working with my management team we designed a process to pass day laborer centers to other organizations and I had to lay off 12 persons.  It was one of the most difficult periods of my life.  I restructured the finances so were not so dependent on government funding and was able to safeguard the programs.  Our day laborer work continued and we went on to form the National Day Laborer Organizing Network that has helped open up day laborer centers throughout the country.  

Describe a past experience that demonstrates your leadership ability.

In 2010, CHIRLA was part of the national campaign for immigration reform.  The Administration of Barack Obama was working with Congress to try to pass immigration reform. We were extremely hopeful that finally immigration reform was going to happen for the close to 11 million undocumented individuals. I was invited to Washington D.C. for a meeting in the White House to discuss these unacceptable situations.  I had already had to respond to worksite raids happening in Southern California and the reaction to families separated by deportation.  I alongside my colleagues went to the meeting and met with President Barack Obama.  It was at this meeting which was set to discuss strategy on immigration reform in Congress that I spoke up and let him know of the suffering that the local immigration enforcement was having on our communities.  While he at first rejected the notion that the harm was happening to innocent people, this tense meeting and conversation resulted in his staff reaching out and working on Prosecutorial Discretion policy in 2011 that sought to protect undocumented workers  from deportation and this policy then led to the creation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. 

How long have you been working on your project?

25

Where are you headquartered?

What type of organization is your project?