Immigrant advocates remain resolute in face of Trump victory
As organizers watched red drench the electoral map at the New York Immigration Coalition's election night watch party, a nervousness filled the air. It was still early in the night, but another Trump presidency felt like a real possibility — one which would endanger the same populations they work with given his platform and previous term characterized by deportations and xenophobic rhetoric. And many attendees could do nothing but watch, barred from the electorate process as non-citizens.
"As a green card holder, it could be a little bit frustrating not to have that option to vote when you actually contribute so much [and] when you actually feel part of the community," said Jorge Paz Reyes, a community organizer for Brooklyn's Mixteca . "However, you have to stay in community, you have to be educated and be active in all these spaces so you can show your perspective and help those who actually have the choice to vote, to see your vision, to see how you contribute, so they can represent you with their vote."
Still, gloom and doom remained largely absent. For Sophie Kouyate , the membership & services manager for African Communities Together, connecting African migrants to services in Harlem continues no matter who ends up in the Oval Office.
"No matter the outcome tonight, they need to know that we are here to stay, and we're not going anywhere," Kouyate said. "And we're going to move things and we're going to continue to protect our community through all this. The fight is long, but we're going to continue."
Milena Mojica, an education coordinator for Mixteca, says she feels even American citizens feel shut out of the presidential election here in New York thanks to the electoral college. A Colombian immigrant, she fears how a second Trump term will impact people around her, even though she is on pathway to American citizenship.
"Even though I think my case is really straightforward, I still am afraid that I'm gonna lose a lot of people that work alongside me [that] I work with daily because of this election. So it definitely changes everything."
But the work does not start or end on election day.
"One of the first things that I'm taking as a preparation [in my work] as a community organizer, is [informing the community on] their rights," said Reyes. "Knowing the rights and/or how to deal with situations when we are questionable or background or question[s] about immigration status, I think being informed is key. Thankfully, we live in New York City, which is a place where we still own and enjoy a lot of the rights as immigrants. Yet we know that things might change with the federal administration.
"But staying optimistic is a way of being prepared too, meaning [building] community [and] showing up to rallies [and] mobilizations. Because at the end of the day, you have to show that we're still there, and you have to show that regardless, we want to get through this. However, we want an outcome that at the end of the day will help our communities."
