The high-energy immigrant rights rally that attracted more than a thousand people to the Roundhouse earlier this week made it clear that New Mexicans care about the issue.
What might be less clear to some is the years of behind-the-scenes work of advocacy organizations and lawyers to create the kind of public policy shifts for which the throng was clamoring.
One of the immigration attorneys on the case is Jessica Martinez, a New Mexico-born daughter of Mexican immigrants who works as director of policy and coalition building for the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center.
“I've been organizing since I was 13 years old, promoting the Dream Act,” Martinez said.
“For me, it's full circle now to be an attorney, to have been raised in the movement, to be with a lot of my family members and that grew up in a mixed-status home—and now to be an advocate in the movement and get to work with our community to pass laws at the state level.”
After agreeing to an interview in the lobby of the statehouse as the rally continued, Martinez talked about the objectives of several measures her organization and others are supporting during the 60-day legislative session.
One measure would improve the process of providing a visa to immigrants who are victims of certain crimes and help law enforcement in criminal investigations.
“ In order to get that visa, they have to get a U visa certification that has to come from a law enforcement certifier that they were helpful in the investigation or the prosecution of that crime," Martinez said.
"And they're just people who are not giving them simply for the fact that they don't want to—no actual basis. There are some certifiers that have been very helpful. So we wanna highlight what's working and what's not working, and streamline this process to ensure that people that qualify for this important form of relief are able to get that.”
Other bills Martinez and the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center support include ones aimed at keeping sensitive personal data private, and another that would improve safety at the state’s detention centers.
Martinez said that several of the bills up for debate this year are versions of measures that didn’t get through the legislative juggernaut in previous years.
But she remains hopeful:
“ To see the power of all of the collective energy of over a thousand people here from across the state showing that immigrants are leaders, that we are powerful. We are a community that's organized and we are not going to allow ourselves to be divided in any way."
"And we're not gonna let fear deter us from changing laws to protect ourselves here in the state, and that we are a state that has the values that will ensure our protection as a community and as a whole.”
