By Julia Berkman
Western’s Blue Group, a club for undocumented students and their allies, turned chicharrones and hibiscus water into legal fees at their fundraiser for Maru Mora-Villalpando, a local undocumented activist.
Mora-Villalpando, who’s daughter attends Western, was mailed an order to appear before Immigration Court in December. Since then, she and her family have been waiting for more news.
Senior Jenifer Becerril Pacheco, Blue Group’s co-chair, was manning the table, selling wares and chatting up passerbys. She calls the Blue Group a family.
Now, this family has come together to help an activist, and community member, remain stateside.
Mora-Villalpando moved to the U.S. in the 90’s, when Mexico City’s political climate was unstable. She came on a tourist visa and when it expired, she stayed. Almost 26 years later, Mora-Villalpando’s daughter attends Western.
“If I’m outside the detention center and I’m talking to families, the first thing I say is ‘I’m undocumented’. Sometimes I feel that if I say I’m an activist it sounds very individualistic,” she said in an interview with South Seattle Emerald.
Mora-Villalpando has remained on the front lines of protests and demonstrations despite her immigration status.
The threat of deportation Mora-Villalpando faces isn’t uncommon these days. More and more immigration activists are being threatened with deportation, according to Becerril Pacheco.
Becerril Pacheco believes that community organizers who have been involved in undocumented activism are being targeted because they are the foundation of the movement. To threaten them, she believes, is to threaten the movement.
“It’s not really an option to be silent. [Threatening deportation] doesn’t make people go back into the shadows,” she said.
The fundraiser was expected to make almost $200, which will be combined with another $200 from an earlier fundraiser, according to Becerril Pacheco. Mora-Villalpando needs money for legal feels because she uses so much of the money she makes from public speaking to pay bonds for other people, Becerril Pacheco said.
You can donate to Mora-Villalpando’s legal fund or sign her petition by looking at Blue Group’s Facebook page.