Alternative Migrant Trail 2020 Day 6 Jessica Rodriguez Living DACAmented

Today on 30 Minutes, our multipart series continues with excerpts from Living DACAmented with Tucson based organizer and activist Jessica Rodriguez. This presentation was just weeks before the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump Administration’s efforts to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Up first, Migrant Trail Organizing Committee Member Kat Rodriguez introduces Jessica Rodiguez.

Jessica Rodriguez is a Tucson based organizer and activist. Currently, she is the Lead Organizer for the Southside Worker Center. The Southside Worker Center supports a community of worker-leaders building collective power and raising the standards of worker conditions so that workers can take part in dignified work and earn just wages.

Throughout her work at the Southside Worker Center, Jessica has helped to recover thousands of dollars in wages for workers, stop criminalization, detention, and deportations of families, defend the rights migrant workers and develop migrant-led worker-owned cooperatives.

For the Virtual Migrant Trail, Jessica shared her personal experience as a DACA recipient in Arizona.

Since 2004, a group of committed people has coordinated an annual week-long, 75-mile walk from Sásabe, Sonora, Mexico to Tucson, Arizona to call for an end to migrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border and to stand in solidarity with victims of global migration. In May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, participants were unable to physically unite to remember those who have died crossing

To continue to raise awareness about migrant deaths and to help raise money for local border justice organizations, organizers launched an alternative Migrant Trail Walk experience to bring people together in a virtual environment. Proceeds benefitted: BorderLinks, the O’Odham Anti-Border Collective, Keep Tucson Together, and the No More Deaths Emergency COVID-19 Bond Fund. The Migrant Trail 2020 Alternative experience included a week of daily reflections, videos, podcasts, and featured speakers.

This has been part 6 of a multipart series. You can learn more about The Migrant Trail on their website and their Facebook group.

Edited and produced by Amanda Shauger with audio provided by the Migrant Trail Organizing Committee.