Survival and Mobilization: Mutual Aid in Migrant Justice Struggles
Live transcription is available here.
In 2019, a news story broke nationally of a Tennessee man who had been protected from an ICE arrest when his neighbors surrounded his van and waited hours for ICE to leave. This demonstration of solidarity is connected to tactics being used in many states by people seeking to protect their communities from immigration enforcement. Alerting each other about police checkpoints, supporting people who are currently in ICE detention and their families, assisting deportees and their families, and collaborating on mutual aid projects related to housing and transportation needs are just some of the mutual aid projects people working for migrant justice are pursuing. In this conversation with Dean Spade, Nikki Marín Baena will share her experiences working for migrant justice with Mijente and Siembra NC, discussing how this work is unfolding, how it relates to ongoing shifts and changes in immigration enforcement, and how mutual aid work fits into the broader project of ending immigration enforcement.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Nikki Marín Baena is Co-Director at Siembra NC, and has helped coordinate Mijente’s Sin El Estado work with activists in the US, Puerto Rico and other parts of latinoamérica.
Dean Spade has been working in movements to build queer and trans liberation based in racial and economic justice for the past two decades. He is a Professor at Seattle University School of Law and the author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law, the director of the documentary “Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back!,” and the creator of the mutual aid toolkit at BigDoorBrigade.com. His latest book is Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next).
ACCESSIBILITY
ASL and live transcription will be provided. RSVP is encouraged.
This event is made possible by the Patricia Wismer Professorship in Gender and Diversity at Seattle University.