On a frigid and blustery early morning in January, about two dozen day-laborers, all of them undocumented, stood outside the Josefina Ahumada Worker Center on the south side of Tucson. It was a typical scene, clusters of mostly men waiting around for a truck to swing by driven by someone looking to pay for a day or so of work.
But this morning, moments after a large orange pickup came by and briefly negotiated with a lucky worker and drove away, a siren started blaring from a red and white megaphone. The laborers were expecting the piercing sound, and knew exactly what to do: immediately turn on their heels and quickly — and calmly — walk across the parking lot and enter into the worker center’s main office.
“40 segundos, muy bien,” Tony called out, praising the group for quickly getting inside, as the last man entered and closed the door behind him. They had just conducted another Border Patrol raid simulation.
As with other undocumented people in this article, Tony only wanted to use his first name for fear of deportation.
Organizers and workers at Josefina Ahumada have spent the months since President Donald Trump’s election victory in November preparing for stepped up immigration enforcement and the promise of “mass deportations.”
Community and advocacy groups throughout Southern Arizona have been brainstorming, emotionally preparing, conducting know-your-rights trainings, getting documents in order, and more, in readiness for the possible crackdown.
How to get involved
- The Josefina Ahumada Worker Center and La Coalición de Derechos Humanos seek to help protect and support Southern Arizona family members and neighbors. Knowing basic human and legal rights is a key step, they say. Follow the worker center on social media and find out more about Derechos Humanos here.
- Derechos Humanos will sponsor a community assembly to share information and resources about and for immigrant communities Saturday, Feb. 1, noon to 2:00 p.m. at Our Lady of Fatima Parish, 1950 W. Irvington Pl.
The model many such groups are leaning into is the concept of mutual aid.
“Mutual aid has been a core part of every social movement in the United States,” said Dean Spade, author of the 2020 book Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next).
Spade gave examples from the push to abolish slavery to the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, and more.
“Every movement mounts resistance to its opponents but also takes care of everybody. That is what movements are made of, a combination of both care and the outward resistance,” Spade said.
“It’s impossible to overstate the significance of mutual aid in building our movements and helping people survive.”
In Southern Arizona, as communities of undocumented and other marginalized people prepare for expected rising threats, mutual aid is seen as an increasingly critical approach.
An early morning siren
As the echoes of the megaphone’s sirens faded, the group huddled for a couple minutes and recapped the experience, they acknowledged that they could have done better.
Thirty, 35 seconds is what they’re aiming for, Tony explained. He said that anything slower could compromise more people.
“We know they’ll probably arrest three or four of us if Border Patrol shows up,” Tony said in Spanish, adding that they’re trying to keep that number as low as possible.
The plan is to get inside — quickly and calmly, not running to provoke a chase — close the door, leave one volunteer with papers outside, and then exercise their right to demand a warrant.
“They shouldn’t run, because if they run they’ll give an excuse to the authorities,” Tony said.
Tony said that they learned a lot in 2010 when Arizona’s anti-immigrant law SB1070 first went into effect. He said Josefina Ahumada, previously known as the Southside Worker Center, became nationally recognized for offering support to the community, for practicing mutual aid.
“It’s a place that fights, that protects,” Tony said. “It’s a symbol of solidarity.”
The simulation at the worker center is one of many steps local groups are taking to prepare for the coming administration’s plan for mass deportations.
“Radical hospitality”
The sound of chatter reverberated throughout the auditorium as people trickled in. The walls, lined with murals and political declarations, set the mood for frank discussions on preparing for a new political climate — the second Trump administration — and its implications for immigrants and undocumented residents.
The Coalición de Derechos Humanos, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the “human and civil rights of all migrants regardless of their immigration status,” hosts weekly public meetings at the Global Justice Center and this was their last one before Christmas. The meeting began and the mismatched chairs, arranged in a circle, were sparsely populated by organizers and community members.
Representatives from committees, from the faith-based committee to a rapid response team, gave updates on their activities and suggestions on how they could prepare for Trump’s anti-migrant policies.
They are developing a system to respond to support individuals and their families who are targeted for arrest.
“Given the horrific conditions that already exist, then this promise of mass deportation, mass detention, mass separation of families, what is our response going to look like? It’s got to be radical hospitality,” said Isabel García, immigrant rights attorney and longtime member and one of the leaders of Derechos Humanos.
Concerns over privacy and law enforcement echoed attendees’ fears and personal experiences with Trump’s previous presidency.
“I believe that this building of community is going to be the only way to respond to a set of events that promises to be horrific,” she said, adding that it was only the community that can decide how to respond.
“Yeah we’ll need lawsuits, but that’s not our solution,” García said. “It’s this immigrant community that is deciding how to proceed, how to protect themselves. It’s the community that has to be followed, not our politicians.”
UA campus defense
Zara is a 31-year-old doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona, with a focus on international education. She’s originally from a country in Africa, and has been studying at the UA since 2021. Zara is a pseudonym. Fearing discrimination and for her safety, she asked not to use her real name or to identify her home country.
While she repeatedly emphasizes that she feels more privileged than other international or undocumented students, she is also acutely anxious about what may come under the Trump administration.
“One of my main concerns is xenophobia and islamophobia getting worse,” Zara said. “The fear of migrant populations is unjustified,” she added, saying it’s up to lawmakers, the university, and community members to step up.
The UA, meanwhile, says it’s offering the services and support students need.
“The University of Arizona offers support to all of our Wildcat students, and resources are widely available for our community to utilize as needed,” UA spokesperson Mitch Zak said in a statement. He said they welcome students to “take advantage of a range of resources through the university’s resource centers, Counseling and Psych Services (CAPS), and the Dean of Students Office.”
Zak referred questions about the possibility of deportations and immigration officials on campus to the Department of Homeland Security “to address this policy question.”
That reality has Zara and other students worried. Zara said that she’s begun to carry her identification and visa documents with her when she goes out, in case she gets stopped. Even though she has legal status with her student visa, she worries she could be arrested or face deportation.
She also has emergency contacts at the ready, and has discussed scenarios and sought emotional support with a group of friends. “We talk about this, letting each other know we’re here for each other,” Zara said
She said the International Student Services office at the UA and the Graduate Students Professional Student Council have both been offering support as well.
“We have to acknowledge that safety comes first,” Zara said.
Another UA student, formerly undocumented and with a mixed status family, also asked that her name not be used for fear of repercussions against her and her family. She said the weeks before Trump’s inauguration felt like deja-vu from his first term.
“It feels like we’re preparing for war,” she said.
“We don’t ask for papers”
Cecilio is another day-laborer at the Josefina Ahumada Worker Center who took part in the Border Patrol raid simulation.
Cecilio insisted that if Border Patrol did show up, an undocumented day laborer needs to step up as well.
“It’s important that we do it, because we have rights too, and it’s important we use them,” Cecilio said.
Tony agreed. “We’re the spine of the migrant community here, and more and more migrants are a critical piece of this country,” he said.
“We help anyone, everyone,” Tony said. “We don’t ask for papers, we just respond to what people need.”
He added: “We want to offer security, protection, a place where people can feel at home, a place that is theirs.”
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