One Year In: Impact of Increased Immigration Enforcement
At Bay Area AFN’s inaugural Inclusive Economic and Immigrant Rights Summit, we explored what becomes possible when we recognize immigrant people as essential rights-holders whose flourishing is foundational to our collective prosperity.
From Anat Shenker-Osorio and movement leaders, we learned that moving beyond extractive narratives requires not only opposition but also proposition. We must reject frameworks that reduce immigrant communities to economic metrics—as laborers and consumers—and instead advance narratives that recognize immigrant people as integral builders and shapers of our communities, culture, and country. Not merely participants but co-creators of the inclusive prosperity we all deserve.
Anat shared powerful examples of strategic communications campaigns, including Brave of Us and the Women’s March “What Will You Say?” ad. This work has taken on heightened urgency as the attacks on our freedoms, our families, and our futures have escalated. It’s not just Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, and Memphis. In the past year, there have also been hundreds of ICE abductions and arrests in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Francisco counties here in the Bay Area.
To hear an update from Anat on the Brave of Us campaign and learn about the current impact of immigration enforcement in our home communities, please join Bay Area AFN, Give Forward Foundation, the Grove Foundation, Sobrato Philanthropies, Northern California Grantmakers, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, the City of San Jose, and United Coalition for Immigrant Services for a virtual funders briefing.
