Reclaiming Our Narrative
There was a time when Americans took pride in giving refuge to people seeking a better life – the tired and the poor yearning to breathe free, as Emma Lazarus wrote in “The New Colossus.” In that time, to be an immigrant was to be a bearer of hope and courage, a symbol of what is possible in a world hostage to the mercurial and merciless whims of fate.
Today, the public is bombarded with a dizzying barrage of misleading and cruel images of immigrants. Immigration has devolved into a deeply divisive subject that politicians exploit as a wedge issue for electoral advantage. Empathy transformed into scorn or apathy.
California has a unique role in the national landscape. In addition to being the world’s fifth largest economy, and highest in per capita GDP, California has the nation’s largest immigrant population and is a beacon for proactive and positive policymaking. Despite this, immigrant communities in California–especially those who sustain the care economy, agriculture, construction, service industries, and other essential sectors–continue to face harmful narratives, underinvestment, and political backlash. There is an urgent need to invest in a strong, coordinated narrative infrastructure that not only defends against anti-immigrant rhetoric but proactively centers immigrants as key contributors to our economic prosperity and collective well-being.
Consider the following: “The far right and its allies have outspent, out-messaged, and out-organized progressives on immigration for nearly a decade. From 2018 to 2024, the right spent nearly $800 million on immigration ads compared with $125 million spent on the left. In the 2024 election alone, right-wing candidates and groups spent more than five times as much on immigration-related broadcast ads as Democratic candidates and groups.”
If immigrant rights advocates are to mount an effective response to the demonization of immigrants, there must be substantial investment in a robust narrative infrastructure. Chronically underfunded for decades, with only a few funders explicitly resourcing the work, the narrative and communications capacity of the immigrant rights movement in California is highly uneven and unstable. Large, statewide organizations that employ communications staff are stretched by the magnitude of the challenge they face, especially at this moment. Many nonprofits talk about communications capacity in an aspirational manner and do not have full-time staff to do the work. They often multitask as organizers and advocates when organizational capacity is an issue, and this dilutes their ability to implement and sustain a powerful communications strategy. It is time to tell our own stories – loudly, proudly, and on our own terms. Examples of doing this abound – we can look to the work of ASO Communications strategies which has successfully employed the Values, Vision, Villains, and Victory framework to run successful messaging campaigns.
HOW DO WE PIVOT IN THESE TIMES?
California needs a fully-resourced, statewide communication hub to develop, coordinate, and amplify equity messaging across all regions of the state. This hub should support community-based organizations and advocacy groups by providing shared language, culturally relevant materials, strategic media guidance, customized technical assistance and rapid response support. It should also build capacity through training, templates, and toolkits to ensure consistent and values-driven messaging that reaches and resonates with diverse communities. By aligning communications efforts statewide, we can achieve greater scale, amplify impact, combat misinformation, and shift harmful narratives.
There is also a need for long-term, resourced training and narrative strategy support for grassroots organizations–particularly those led by and serving communities of color in regions facing heightened political vulnerability, such as Orange County, the Central Valley, and the Central Coast. This investment should include tailored workshops, strategic, customized coaching, and access to communications experts to help groups craft compelling messages that resonate beyond their base. Training should focus on reaching broader and more skeptical audiences, countering harmful misinformation, and elevating narratives rooted in equity and belonging. By investing in this infrastructure, grassroots organizations can remain relevant to combat well-funded anti-immigrant forces whose influence continues to grow across the state.
Grassroots organizations need sustainable access to high-quality polling, message testing, and narrative research to better understand and influence public opinion–especially as the immigration narrative continues to shift with national and local realities. Yet the cost of these tools is often prohibitive. To meet this need, the state must invest in a shared infrastructure that allows trusted community-based organizations to engage researchers and data experts in a meaningful, consistent way. This involves co-designing research questions, analyzing data through an equity lens, and translating insights into action– from organizing and policy advocacy to public education. By intentionally connecting research to grassroots strategy, policy development, and real-time community action, we can build a more responsive, effective ecosystem for narrative change.
We are at a critical juncture in the current immigration discourse in which a persuasion window exists. This means there are opportunities to help a confused and anxious American public make sense of the prevailing debate, and for advocates to make a case for another way forward on this issue. Opponents of immigrants (and immigration) have effectively used it as a wedge issue to create and attract disaffected voters, especially among young men, relying on harmful and misleading race-baiting narratives.
Advocates for immigrants need to build the narrative infrastructure required to compete in this complex and fraught environment. They need effective, sophisticated and relevant messaging that counters the fear-mongering that immigrant “others” are displacing Americans or that immigration is bad for America. The truth is that immigrants are integral to our communities and society at-large, and the truly frightening thought is: How would the nation function if immigrants stopped being active players in our economy and important contributors to the vitality of American society? The answer lies not in dehumanizing immigrants, but in forging a constructive, realistic agenda to move us beyond political games and toward an inclusive future for our country.
About the author:
Cynthia T. Buiza is a nonprofit and philanthropic strategist with over two decades of experience, specializing in policy advocacy, narrative change, movement building, fundraising, and organizational development. Buiza was the former Executive Director of the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC), where she led the organization’s mission to advance immigrant rights statewide. She brings over two decades of experience in nonprofit leadership and human rights advocacy, including prior roles as Policy Director at the ACLU of San Diego and Policy and Advocacy Director at CHIRLA. Before her work in the U.S., Buiza focused on refugee and migration issues in Southeast Asia, including positions with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Jesuit Refugee Service. She also co-authored Anywhere But War (2003), a book on conflict and displacement in Indonesia’s Aceh province.