Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
While close in proximity, the immigrants’ rights movements in Arizona and New Mexico have manifested wins in different arenas.
This panel will discuss the successful policies passed in New Mexico during the last 25 years that allow immigrant New Mexicans to pursue higher education and workforce training, obtain driver’s licenses, receive protection from wage theft and discrimination, and access state guaranteed-basic-income pilots. By contrast, Arizona has passed several anti-immigrant laws, including a ban on cities passing sanctuary policies, served as the center stage for racist policing as immigration enforcement, and is home to many localities that use immigration detention centers as a means for economic development. But Arizona has also served as an incubator for participatory defense community organizing led by directly impacted people, from Puente to Red De DefensAZ. This panel will explore the reasons behind these divergences and what they can teach us about non-carceral futures in the Southwest.
•Yvette Borja, Laura E. Gómez Latinx People and the Law Teaching Fellow, UCLA School of Law
•Mariel Alexandra Bustamante, PhD Student in Jurisprudence and Social Policy, UC Berkeley School of Law
•Gabriela Ibañez Guzmán, Staff Attorney, Somos un Pueblo Unido
•Emily Morel, Community Organizer, Red de DefensAZ
•Alejandra Pablos, Organizer, Red de DefensAZ
•Moderator: Laura E. Gómez, Lee & Leon Karelitz Chair in Evidence & Procedure, The University of New Mexico School of Law and Rachel F. Moran Endowed Chair in Law Emerita, UCLA School of Law
While close in proximity, the immigrants’ rights movements in Arizona and New Mexico have manifested wins in different arenas.
This panel will discuss the successful policies passed in New Mexico during the last 25 years that allow immigrant New Mexicans to pursue higher education and workforce training, obtain driver’s licenses, receive protection from wage theft and discrimination, and access state guaranteed-basic-income pilots. By contrast, Arizona has passed several anti-immigrant laws, including a ban on cities passing sanctuary policies, served as the center stage for racist policing as immigration enforcement, and is home to many localities that use immigration detention centers as a means for economic development. But Arizona has also served as an incubator for participatory defense community organizing led by directly impacted people, from Puente to Red De DefensAZ. This panel will explore the reasons behind these divergences and what they can teach us about non-carceral futures in the Southwest.
•Yvette Borja, Laura E. Gómez Latinx People and the Law Teaching Fellow, UCLA School of Law
•Mariel Alexandra Bustamante, PhD Student in Jurisprudence and Social Policy, UC Berkeley School of Law
•Gabriela Ibañez Guzmán, Staff Attorney, Somos un Pueblo Unido
•Emily Morel, Community Organizer, Red de DefensAZ
•Alejandra Pablos, Organizer, Red de DefensAZ
•Moderator: Laura E. Gómez, Lee & Leon Karelitz Chair in Evidence & Procedure, The University of New Mexico School of Law and Rachel F. Moran Endowed Chair in Law Emerita, UCLA School of Law
