Super Tuesday is an Urgent Opportunity to Showcase Immigrant Power
By Angelica Salas
His playbook is familiar to us: Portray immigrants as a threat rather than as strivers who belong. Cage our children to parade as trophies before an extreme base. Shame us and blame us to divide the country and distract voters from his corruption and failures.
It would be easy to feel deflated with the onslaught coming from this president. But what Trump and his people can’t see is the people power we have built and how we’ll use it to stop them.
The presidential primaries — especially Super Tuesday — are a time to highlight the result of our work. They are our chance to vote together to affirm our hope for the country we want, rather than merely resisting Trump’s daily hate.
The caging of children remains among the most visceral examples of Trump’s brutality. We all remember the pictures of kiddie jails and the pain they’ve evoked among the American people. Still, these are on-brand for Trump, because they give his base permission to say the children are the aggressors and they are the victims.
For communities like ours, the stakes are as high as they can be in this election, because Trump’s toxic plan could succeed. If Trump wins again, he will wield the government to inflict further pain. We do not know where the limits of his efforts could go, but he could quite possibly move on to using it against others whom he doesn’t like.
Even though so much is at stake, we haven’t stood still through all of this. We invested decades in tools to soundly reject Trump’s hatred and affirm an agenda that works for everyone. In California, CHIRLA has been building its own voter base among those whom the parties ignore. They are new citizens, English learners, infrequent voters, rural residents and young people — in short, people cast as invisible who get shut out of our democracy.
We build relationships with them and reach out often. We discuss the world they want to see and engage them in urgent policy fights. We inform them, channel their interest, and empower them to vote.
We know we’re not alone. Work like this is happening in organizing spaces from coast to coast. Combined with our allies’ muscle and our neighbors’ strength at the ballot box, this power-building endeavor can end Trump’s cruel, chaotic policies toward immigrants.
On March 3, people from California to Texas to Arkansas decide who will lead the fight to dislodge Trump from the White House. If enough voters see the value of an agenda in common immigrants, we’ll be the most powerful voter coalition our country has ever seen. We really are on the brink of achieving this.
Imagine the power of combining forces in the primaries with groups that have stood with us for the last three years: the Women’s March, climate groups, people who flooded airports to say no to a Muslim ban, peopl who voted in 2018, and those galvanized by the historic candidacies of leaders like Alejandra Ocasio-Cortez, Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum. Now envision a world where we use our electoral muscle, together, to fill our government with leaders who respond to us.
Our vision also happens to make for good politics. Evidence shows the public likes bold policies; our candidates just have to fight for its support. When people hear our stories, when they understand our common ground, and when we make the case that everyone regardless of origin should have a fair chance at freedom, we know we have all can win.
Our communities face grave, real threats. This is why we’ve worked hard to build this movement — because it’s as serious as life, death, and freedom. We’ve already done the hardest part. On Super Tuesday, let’s carry these truths with us into the voting booth and make a decisive statement on behalf of our communities once and for all
Angélica Salas is the executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), an immigrant-centered and immigrant-powered organization working to achieve a just society fully inclusive of immigrants.
