A court victory for dreamers in a larger struggle for justice

On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that I — and more than 800,000 of my immigrant siblings who are protected through DACA — can continue to reach for the dreams we envisioned when we first won the program.

This victory is not thanks to five Supreme Court justices. This is an affirmation of a victory won eight years ago by undocumented youth who put our lives on the line to demand that our basic humanity and dignity be recognized. That victory paved the path to so many accomplishments in our community, empowering us with opportunities to work with dignity, alleviating some of our fears of detention and deportation, and giving us the ability to contribute to our families and nation more fully.

Ever since President Trump ordered the dismantling of the DACA program on Sept. 5, 2017, our community anxiously watched DACA work its way through the courts. Thursday’s ruling determined Trump’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious.” His immoral attempt to dehumanize us cannot stand in the place of law and justice.

On June 15, 2012, I was in Los Angeles surrounded by more than 100 undocumented immigrant youths from across the country, fighting for recognition that our lives and dreams are meaningful. On that day, President Obama issued an executive order called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, protecting Dreamers from detention and deportation. For the first time in my life, my hopes felt possible and my dreams felt validated.

I immediately called my mom. As I explained our victory, my mom told me with tears and joy, “As long as my children are OK, I am OK.” I realized then that my mother, who had escaped domestic violence and sacrificed her life so her children could have a better one, was not included in my relief. At that moment, I realized that my work — our work — was far from over. I committed to my mother that I wouldn’t stop until she could live a life without fear and could come true.

We must not leave anyone behind. Even as we celebrate this victory, we must fight for the 10 million undocumented Americans like my mother who lack the security of DACA.

As we observe Pride month, let us work in solidarity with the movement seeking justice for George Floyd and lift up the numerous and often invisible cases of violence and murders against our Black transgender family at the hands of police brutality, white supremacy and transphobia.

We must also lift up our Black immigrant siblings leading hunger strikes in solidarity with the all Black Lives Matter movement while caged in detention centers across our nation. Let us lift up our transgender and queer immigrant siblings suffering in isolation in solidarity confinement cells in unsafe detention centers across our country. They are calling for solidarity and for us to take action and we must continue to center them in our response.

In Orlando, all of the work that we’ve done since the Pulse shooting has taught us the healing power of love and justice. In the wake of that tragedy, we established the Contigo Fund. Contigo was founded on the belief that the people closest to the challenges we face are also closest to the solutions that we need.

When Contigo appointed me as its founding director, I became the first undocumented leader to direct a major philanthropic program. From the start, my leadership at Contigo has been driven by my firsthand experience of being queer, undocumented and Latinx — and of having loved ones taken from me on that tragic night.

Since then, the work of the Contigo Fund and its grantee partners and of countless LGBTQ+, Black, Latinx and immigrant leaders and allies, has shown us that change is possible when we focus on those most affected by the inequities we face. We must continue to trust those with the most at stake to pave our path to liberation, and together we will win.

Our shared movement for justice has taught me that we are all worthy and powerful. Our struggle for liberation is interlinked, because until we are all free, none of us is free.

In this time of turbulence, today I feel hopeful that we will win. If we unite and fight for the dignity we all deserve, we will win. Together, we are sanctuary. Together, we can stand against oppression and violence and rise up for freedom and justice.