Playing State Politics: How Immigrants Respond to Welcoming and Hostile Politics

• In Event: Public Policy and Political Institutions

Abstract

Immigrant serving organizations play a major role in immigrant political participation. They can reduce
upfront costs of organizing and they identify appropriate venues to advocate for change and policy.
However, immigrant serving organizations do not function in a vacuum. Using in-depth interviews of
staff members in immigrant serving organizations and case studies of Texas and California, this paper
looks at how immigrant organizations address state politics, whether they be hostile or welcoming to
immigrant rights. I find that immigrant organizations are incredibly sensitive to state politics and it
factors in how they present themselves online and the visibility of their staff. This also factors in how
they think about legislative advocacy and availability to the public. This paper adds to the literature on political participation by brining into conversation not only how immigrant serving organizations assess risk to immigrant political participation, but also assess risk to themselves. This fundamentally changes how they view what advocacy is possible

Author

• Maricruz Ariana Osorio, Bentley University