The rights mobilization literature suggests that a high risk of harm generally inhibits social movement activism, yet this does not appear to be the case for undocumented youth who have mobilized for social change. To understand theoretically what has allowed these youth to organize despite the threats they confront, this research explores the social movement activism of undocumented Asian and Latina/o youth advocating for immigration reform. A theoretic model of legal mobilization is proposed and tested based on data gathered from in-depth interviews and participant observation of three community-based organizations over a period of two years. Recent developments in the national landscape regarding immigration and immigrant rights point to the need for an understanding of the inner workings of legal mobilization among members of marginalized populations, and how such activism does or does not relate to conventional understandings of mobilization among members of similarly situated groups.
The central findings from this study highlight the strategies and tactics undocumented Asian and Latina/o immigrant youth activists have utilized in the fight for immigrant rights. Despite the potential for removal from the state as a result of their participation, activists has not been deterred, but rather, have increased their involvement in planning actions and engaging in more radical approaches to organizing. Focusing on San Francisco and Chicago, two primary movement epicenters, we found that through their activism, undocumented youth exercise citizenship rights by engaging in a proxy dynamic process. This process involves 1) raising the political consciousness of citizens, 2) engaging the law in a piecemeal fashion to construct the equivalent of formal citizenship rights and 3) deploying their newly won rights as a means of working to challenge the normative, dominant construct of citizenship altogether. Drawing upon legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw’s conceptualization of intersectionality, we argue that activists also invoked a narrative of intersectional identities, which they leveraged in a strategic fashion. Foregrounding undocumented status, activists also highlighted the overlap between the immigrant experience and queer, people of color and working class narratives. This approach in turn facilitated coalition building with other communities, working to make the immigrant rights a broader, far-reaching national issue. We continue on to argue that undocumented youth activists’ emphasis on intersectional identities is also accompanied by a heightened, more nuanced understanding of the law. As "extra-legal" subjects, it would follow that undocumented community members would see themselves as subjects of the law, rather than active agents and participants in its making. However, participants in the study displayed a thorough knowledge of the law and legal processes that they used to advocate for increased rights. Previously shut out from the formal legal system, many undocumented youth interviewed have pursued careers as attorneys, testified at senate hearings and participated in acts of civil disobedience. Working around formal barriers to political participation, undocumented activists are employing innovative approaches to ensure their voices, those of individuals directly affected by proposed legislation, are heard. Finally, we found that local political opportunity structures have shifted as a result of these legal tactics. We argue that the emphasis on intersectional identities and active engagement with the law, have led to a shift in larger cultural understandings of "American" national identity. Examining the movement’s cultural productions and the role of social media, we demonstrate how movement activism has reached far beyond the participants and allies, but into the general mainstream public discourse. Thus, the proxy dynamic process and its tactics have led to the formation of a national immigrant rights movement, in direct dialogue with Congress and the President and involving multiple subgroups of the undocumented immigrant community.
