The Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition is a membership-based coalition of immigrants, allies, and organizations that promotes human rights and dignity, and social and economic justice for immigrants through community organizing, policy advocacy, and public education.

Principles:

• Support basic human dignity and promote civil and human rights
• Strengthen worker rights and recognize the full humanity of immigrant workers
• Promote diverse communities that are inclusive of immigrants
• Support policy initiatives that offer a path to humane legalization fairly and in a comprehensive manner
• Reunite families
• Stop enforcement-only policies, such as the militarization of the border, detentions and deportations

• Address the root economic causes of migration while promoting sustainable development and fair trade agreements
• Provide equal access to housing, health care and education

History:

The Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition was founded in April of 2006 in collaboration with a national movement against the Sensenbrenner Bill, which would raise penalties for illegal immigration and classify undocumented immigrants and anyone who helped them enter or remain in the U.S. as felons.  The coalition quickly grew from 10 people to 50 organizations and culminated with the largest march in Austin’s history on April 10, 2006.  An estimated 15,000-30,000 members of the Austin community marched side by side to not only overhaul the bill, but also for just immigration reform, including a pathway to legalization.  That same year, the coalition organized a boycott and strike on May 1 in a National Day Without Immigrants.  Despite fear of workplace raids after the April 10 march, the immigrant community once again took to the streets, closing down restaurants and an estimated 80 percent of construction sites in the city.

From 2006 to 2008, the AIRC was housed under the Workers Defense Project, a local immigrant workers’ rights organization. In 2007 the coalition created a strategic plan with 20 organizations in Austin to respond to the Texas legislature’s anti-immigrant bills and to support national immigration reform. Marches were again organized for April 10 and May 1, with thousands of individuals in attendance.  The April 10 march included legislative visits, with groups from Houston and San Antonio participating.

The AIRC organized a march and rally for immigrant rights on May 1, 2008, as part of International Workers Day.  The Coalition continues to develop strategies to confront issues affecting the local immigrant community.

Coordinator:

Esther Reyes is a Mexican immigrant raised in Texas. Esther has worked in the non-profit sector with immigrants and immigrant communities since her undergraduate career at Baylor University. She continued gaining experience working with Latina/o immigrants in Philadelphia, where she concurrently attended graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania.

Steering Committee:

Hilda Gutierrez (Chair) is the daughter and sister of Mexican immigrants. Hilda received her Bachelor's in Feminist Studies from Southwestern University and her Master's in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. She currently works as an anti-violence advocate.

Jason Cato (Secretary) is completing his PhD in Anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin. He is a community organizer for the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition, a worker rights advocate at the Workers Defense Project, and a photographer and documentarian of immigrant rights, workers lives, and border militarization.

Michael Young (Treasurer) is a sociologist working at the University of Texas, Austin.  Michael spent the first two decades of his life living in Africa, Europe, Central and South America. His research interests include the history of American social movements. Michael is a member of Congregation Beth Israel.

Craig Adair is Legislative Director for State Representative Lon Burnam of House District 90, Fort Worth, Texas.  He has been an activist and politico for the past ten years after a previous life as a mechanical engineer and a securities trader.  Craig holds Masters Degrees in Public Affairs and Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

Ignacio Aviles was born in Mexico City and raised in the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico. Ignacio witnessed first-hand the killing of many of his university colleagues by an absolutist, right-wing government. Mexico's economic conditions forced him to cross the border in search of the American Dream. As an undocumented worker, unscrupulous employers didn’t pay him a fair wage and forced him to work overtime. It was then that he decided to engage in various community groups, including Inmigrantes Latinos en Accion, Workers Defense Project and CIRSOL Pro Educacion y Cultura. Ignacio recently graduated from the Refugio Community Organizing Training Series.

Ana Bernal was born in Coahuila, Mexico. She came to America 5 years ago in search of a better quality of life, a more comfortable economy, and a good education for her children. For 4 years she has been engaged in the Hispanic Community, teaching courses and debates in different groups and parishes in the Catholic Church. She is interested in participating in the Coalition to defend Immigrant’s Human Rights. 

Matt Gossage has been on the steering committee since January 2009. He is an independent filmmaker in Austin, TX. Since 2006, he has been making videos on immigrant detention centers and other immigrant related issues in Texas. Through his films, Matt has gotten involved in the immigrant rights movement.  

Guadalupe Olvera was born in Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. in 1999.  Her passion and involvement with the immigrant community arises from her own personal experience of having been denied wages from a construction project. Guadalupe served as a board member for Workers Defense Project and has been active with the coalition since April 2009.

Patricia Zavala is a community organizer and workers rights advocate with the Workers Defense Project. She was born to a Peruvian father and a Californian mother here in Austin, TX. Patricia holds a Bachelors degree in Global Studies from the University of California Santa Barbara.

Photos: Mariana Salazar