Message from the President and CEO
Our Future Depends on Our Vote
This year’s UnidosUS Annual Conference was a powerful and uplifting gathering. It was wonderful to see so many stakeholders in Austin, from our familia of individual donors to our corporate partners and, of course, the heart of UnidosUS — our Affiliates.
At the conference, I talked about some of the transformative contributions Latinos have made to this country, like the Mendez, Guzman, Palomino, Estrada and Ramirez families who took on the state of California in 1946, so their children could sit in the same classrooms as everyone else. Their case, Mendez v. Westminster, made California the first state in the nation to ban school segregation and paved the way for the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, that ended school segregation across the country.
I also talked about Isabella Gonzales who, as a recent high school graduate, enlisted in the Army to earn her way to college. On July 17, while defending an airbase in Jordan, Isabella gave her life for this country. She was 19 years old, the youngest American service member to die in the Iran War.
These are stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things that are deeply powerful and transformative. And yet, at this moment, there are Americans who look at us and believe we don’t belong here. Under this administration, we’ve seen families torn apart, with more than 6,000 children detained, roving patrols, assaults, people disappearing and ICE operations turning deadly. The feeling that we’re being hunted down is not just fear or paranoia — it is very real.
This assault on our communities is not only a moral and civil rights crisis. It’s also an economic one, where we see a direct line from the raids to lost jobs, lost business and economic disruption. The Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign is a complete failure. And Congress has failed in its constitutional duty to check this abuse and protect our rights, instead demonstrating complicity and cowardice via its authorization of tens of billions of dollars for ICE with no guardrails.
So, for as long as it takes, and with your unwavering support, we will stand firm to keep ICE out of our neighborhoods, schools, churches and homes. We will demand independent investigations into the killings ICE has committed. And we’ll continue demanding that Congress do its job.
We must grow our political power as a community and make our voices heard. You can read more in the Your Investment at Work section about our new nationwide coalition and how we are building our collective strength. Together, we will exercise our right to vote. We will not bow down to bullies and we will not be silenced. With every vote, we will stand up for ourselves, our families and our future.
We will vote and prove, once more, that ordinary people can do extraordinary things and that our collective power can transform this nation.
To view my full conference address visit unidosus.org/conference
Adelante, siempre adelante,
Janet Murguía
President and CEO
