In this episode, you'll hear an inside account of the campaign to win Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which today protects nearly a million immigrants from deportation and gives them the right to be legally employed, beginning with the fight to win undocumented student protections in California that came before the Dream Act and DACA (11:04), the decision to separate the campaign to win protections for immigrants brought as children from a broader legislative campaign that caused "all hell to break loose" inside the immigrant rights movement (23:37), using "inside" and "outside" strategies to force the Obama Administration's hand (33:26), and how leaning into disagreement ultimately helped organizers stay focused and win their campaign (28:28).
Neidi Dominguez is the Executive Director of Unemployed Workers United (UWU), a movement project to organize precarious and jobless workers. Neidi is a national immigrant and worker's rights activist, and organizer. Most recently she was the National States Deputy Director of the U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, and previously worked for multiple labor unions, and in Los Angeles, was co-director of the CLEAN Carwash campaign that successfully unionized hundreds of workers in the country. Formerly undocumented herself, Neidi was a central leader in the campaign to win Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Check out a writeup on this campaign at our website and at The Forge: https://forgeorganizing.org/article/lessons-campaign-win-daca.
Visit www.trainingforchange.org for workshops and training tools, or to make a donation. Follow us on social media @tfctrains. The Craft of Campaigns podcast is made possible by grassroots donors. We welcome your feedback; if you like these episodes, please consider donating, to keep the show running. This podcast is hosted by Andrew Willis Garcés and produced by Ali Roseberry-Polier.