NM program teaches activism
Dream Team represents LGBTQ community, immigrants
A group of 150 young people from around New Mexico, including 60 from Albuquerque, will spend the summer learning how to become effective community organizers and activists.
The seven-week “Summer of Dreams” youth organizing program is being led by the New Mexico Dream Team, a statewide immigrant advocacy group that also represents the LGBTQ community and families of mixed immigration status.
New Mexico Dream Team executive director Gabriela Hernandez said participants from elementary school age through college age will learn about the evolution of the immigrant, LGBTQ, Native American and other movements. “They will also be given the tools needed to become organizers, and learn how to become engaged and involved,” she said.
In addition, many in the group will get a hands-on opportunity to travel to Tornillo, Texas, and put their new organizational and activist skills into practice. Tornillo, a border town in El Paso County, is the site of a newly opened detention facility.
One of the Dream Team’s goals is to “push this administration to stop funding for Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Hernandez said. “We want to make sure that New Mexico is not part of the deportation machine, that we’re not supporting detention camps, and not supporting anything that separates our families.”
Helping launch the Dream Team’s first ever summer organizing program was Albuquerque first lady Elizabeth Kistin Keller, who said that she and her husband, Mayor Tim Keller, “are committed to moving this city forward and continuing to work collaboratively with folks all across this town to create a safe, inclusive, innovative city that works for all of us.”
To do this, first lady Keller said, we have to create an environment “where everybody, regardless of race, religion, socio-economic status, sexual orientation or immigration status feels like they are protected, supported and are able to thrive.”
Keller noted that the immigrant community, particularly those who are undocumented, are living in “particularly difficult times,” while those who have not had to deal with these challenges are just now imagining “the fear, confusion and uncertainty that so many of you have had to navigate since day one with extreme courage, strength and resilience.”
She praised the Dream Team members and program participants as “valued leaders here in the community, and not just on the conversation about immigration,” she said. “You are the future of what we will need in helping to shape the dialogue about what makes Albuquerque a safe community that works for all our families.”