As an organization established to elevate the voices of our immigrant communities in rural Colorado, today’s inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States served as a somber moment for Voces Unidas. Trump’s divisive speech targeting Latino immigrants, gender equity, and diversity programs in federal agencies was a direct attack on the rights, protections, and opportunities that have made America the great nation it is today. But it was also an indirect call to action for organizations like ours to increase our efforts to organize, mobilize, and continue working to make Colorado more equitable and just for all members of our community.
Trump’s promise to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to round up and deport immigrants and to declare a National State of Emergency and deploy military troops to the U.S. border with Mexico are just the beginning of the persecutory policies and actions intended to strip the civil rights and dismantle the protections our community has fought for generations to secure. Although the next four years are sure to be challenging, we cannot back down from the fight ahead.
Over the next days, weeks and months, Voces Unidas will be handing out Know Your Rights cards to our community members, hosting Know Your Rights trainings in many of our mountain communities and continuing important conversations with local and state elected and appointed leaders to ensure we are prepared for what is to come.
Unlike the new president, we remain committed to building bridges, not walls, and leading with love instead of animosity. Yes, we must continue to hold all our elected officials accountable for addressing the needs of our communities, but at the same time we must continue to support the development of leaders within our communities, encouraging them to run for local office and to be the change they hope to see in the world.
Meanwhile, we must also demand legislation and executive actions from elected leaders in Colorado to safeguard our community from mass deportations and other predatory and discriminatory practices. This is not the time to play political games at the expense of immigrant families and the hardworking people who literally built this nation and continue to play a critical role in its economy and cultural fabric.
On this day memorializing the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we remember and share the dream of the departed moral leader of our nation and recognize that “now is the time.” Although our dreams are clearly divergent from those of Donald Trump, we remain convinced that this great nation remains more connected by our common values than divided by our differences. We believe in the power of unity and stand confident that together we will prevail. In the immortal words of Dr. King, "We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Justice must prevail.
Alex Sánchez is President and CEO of Voces Unidas Action Fund. He can be reached at alex@vocesunidas.org.