Interview with Javier Hernandez: Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice
Blanca Ramirez: Please introduce us to the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice.
Javier Hernandez: The coalition came together in 2006 because there were [immigration] raids happening in several corners of the Inland Empire. Because of these raids, it’s good to have an entity like the coalition—one location where we can come to really center and to be able to just coordinate these services together.
The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice convenes over 50 organizations on a monthly basis. Each month we have different meetings or a different event, different actions, or even newer resource clinics and DACA clinics, etc. We’re constantly engaging our partners and working with them to really just advance immigrant justice in the Inland Empire, and also provide services when needed.
Blanca: What are the some of your key activities with communitiy members, and what kind of partnerships do you have with other organizations?
Javier: Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice does policy advocacy, community advocacy, community organizing, and we also manage the Inland Empire Network. We have community members as part of that network.We also do work around the Adelanto Detention Center, so advocacy work and visitation.
And then there’s very limited resources that we are working with in the Inland Empire, and so, knowing and understanding that, we work with our partners to build capacity, so that they can better provide services to the community. We actually provide grants to our partners.
Blanca: Please share with us how your organization become involved with the refugee migration crisis.
Javier: It was May 14th; that’s when the drop-offs of refugees at Greyhound station [by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] began. I believe the first day was about 10 people, 10 to 15 people. The second day it was similar, 20 people, I think. But on the third day, we were notified by another organization that it seemed like they were going to drop off more people on Thursday, and so we were just waiting for a call.
On Thursday, May 16th, there were actually 67 people dropped off. On the 17th, there were 68, and that’s the highest number of drop-offs we saw was 72 people in one day.
At that point, we activated our network. So, we had a staff member present within 45 minutes. Within an hour we had food there. Within two hours, we had more people there doing intakes, and then, within four hours, we had a church that was kind enough to open their doors. We wouldn’t say it was a shelter by then. It was just a church that opened their doors, and we had fully activated our coalition partners and our Rapid Response Network to bring donations, to bring food, to bring clothing, to bring everything that we needed to build the shelter.
In five to six hours, we had 67 people already at the shelter, and we probably had over 100 people there volunteering. So, to us, it was just that people were being dropped off, and we had to respond.
Now that we are reflecting on this, we realized that we did it because it was the right thing to do. We all just kind of stepped up and did it. We kept saying the administration is trying to create chaos, they’re trying to create chaos in our community, and we’re not going to allow them to do that.
Blanca: From working on this issue, what is one way in which we can continue to develop policies and strengthening partners to respond to new migration refugee flows? How can individuals become involved on these issues?
Javier: We would like to create local programs for asylum seekers. Unfortunately, San Bernardino is one of 11 counties in the state where you don’t have—where undocumented people cannot get any medical services. And so, creating some of these safety net programs that are open to undocumented people is definitely important. That’s something that we’ve been highlighting here in the Inland Valley with the County of San Bernardino. It’s a program that they don’t have, but the County of Riverside has a program. The County of L.A. has a program. What’s holding them back from actually doing something that would benefit the community greatly, and also benefit people that really need services?
Another thing is supporting people on the ground. So, when this happens again, really supporting those organizations that are on the ground, financially or with other donations that you may have. Just going directly to where the impact is and where the people are supporting and bringing those resources to those people. And just in general, getting involved in immigrant rights in California. There are many organizations that are doing amazing work, and just tapping into one of the organizations, you’ll be tapping into the work that we’re doing in the state.
I think, luckily, we live in a state where we collaborate, where we work together, where we have many amazing organizations, and just getting involved with one will really just open the door to be able to work with many different organizations. Then, bringing your expertise. If you’re an attorney, if you are, a teacher, if you are just a youth that really wants to get involved. These are the opportunities that we have in California that a lot of people don’t in other states.
What we’re going to do is where they want to create chaos, we’re going to welcome people, and we’re going to create a shelter, and we’re going to welcome people and give them the dignity and respect that they deserve, and that’s how we got involved with the migrant situation in San Bernardino.
Our panelists are Javier Hernandez, Stephanie Canizales-Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California Merced, and David FitzGerald-Professor, Gildred Chair in U.S.-Mexican Relations and Co-Director, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California San Diego. Moderated by Jody Aguis Vallejo, CSII Associate Director.
For more information on the Inland Valley, see USC CSII’s Immigration Scorecard on the region.