• About
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff
    • Meet our Donors
    • News
  • Issues
    • Safety
    • Opportunity
    • Reporting
    • Recognition
    • Equity
  • Programs
    • Reporting Fellowships
      • Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship
      • ¡Exprésate! LGBTQI+ Reporting Initiative
      • Gender Justice Reporting Initiative
      • Global Health Reporting Initiative
      • Round Earth Media
    • Grants & Funds
      • Fund For Women Journalists
      • Fund for Indigenous Journalists: Reporting on MMIWG2T
      • Kari Howard Fund for Narrative Journalism
      • Kim Wall Memorial Fund
      • Reproductive Rights Reporting Fund
      • Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice in the Americas
    • Physical & Digital Safety
      • Online Abuse and Harassment
      • Hostile Environment Training
      • Next Gen Safety Trainers
      • Women in Politics and Media
    • Mentorship & Professional Development
      • Gwen Ifill Mentorship Program
      • Fellowship Program for Afghan Women Journalists in Exile
    • Emergency Assistance
      • Emergency Fund for Women Journalists
      • Black Journalists Therapy Relief Fund
      • Alex Duval Smith Memorial Fund
    • Past Programs
  • Reporting
  • Community
  • Awards
    • Anja Niedringhaus Award
    • Courage in Journalism Award
    • Gwen Ifill Award
    • Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award
  • Resources
    • Self Care & Trauma
    • Research
    • Impact Reports
    • Webinars
  • Search
Search Donate
Reporting

No votes or donations, but DREAMers still play election role

May 27, 2016 | Natali Faxas-Guzman & Kimberly Adams | Marketplace
Carlos Martinez can’t vote or donate to campaigns, so he instead focuses on non-partisan voter outreach, encouraging those who can to vote. – Natalí Faxas

As the presidential race heats up, money is pouring into campaigns and super PACs. Immigration is one of the hot topics for this election, but not everyone with a stake in the issue can fully engage. For example, undocumented immigrants who are already living and working in the U.S.

Carlos Martinez is a database manager and does voter outreach for the Advocacy Alliance Center of Texas (AACT). He hands out buttons and other voting swag, but can’t actually vote in the elections himself, or donate money to candidates he supports.

His mother brought him here illegally from Mexico when he was a 11 years old, so he’s technically a foreign national, even though he’s lived in McAllen, Texas most of his life.

“Whether I’m a U.S. citizen, a resident or undocumented, I’m still part of this community,” he said. “So … laws that are being passed by politicians really affect me directly.”

So, like others who can’t legally donate or just don’t have much cash, he participates through his work activism or volunteering.

The office of the Advocacy Alliance Center of Texas in McAllen is full of voter registration materials in both Spanish and English. – Natalí Faxas

Richard Briffault, who researches campaign finance at Columbia Law School, said many undocumented people are in the same situation.

“They can’t vote and they can’t give money, that’s true,” he said, but “they can work in the campaign headquarters and stuff envelopes… They can make phone calls, if they’re calling. They can knock on doors. That’s not prohibited.”

Prominent DREAMer activist Erika Andiola does Latino outreach for the Bernie Sanders campaign, and said there are a lot of unexpected ways the ban on donations can play out. For example, she can’t buy herself a Bernie Sanders T-shirt from the campaign site, since that would technically be a donation, and therefore illegal.

“I do tell my friends, ‘Get your family members to give you a gift,'” she said of the restriction faced by many of her undocumented friends. “Get your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your partner to give you a Bernie mug. You can’t even give a dollar, but at the end of the day you also have to be patient to be able to fight for that to change.”

Professor Briffault said even if undocumented immigrants could give contributions, it probably wouldn’t have a huge financial impact. That’s because, usually, very few people in any demographic who are eligible to donate actually do.

“Well under 10 percent of the population makes a campaign contribution in any election cycle,” he said, “In a given election, it’s probably 5 percent of the population.”

Andiola said she often has to warn undocumented supporters about the ban against financial contributions, but encourages them to volunteer or work with the campaign.

For Carlos Martinez in Texas, explaining the rules around donations is a lower priority than general voter awareness.

“The biggest obstacle for us,” he said of his work with non-partisan AACT, “is that people are not even aware of the basic rules behind voting – the deadlines, the dates. Sometimes they’re not even aware that they have an election happening.”

He said, for now, he will focus on outreach – to those who are able to contribute both their votes and their money.

The International Women’s Media Foundation supported Kimberly’s reporting from the Mexico-U.S. Border as part of the Adelante Latin America Reporting Initiative.

About the Authors

Natali Faxas-Guzman

Natalí Faxas is a Dominican journalist who specializes in migration and international relations. She is part of the investigative team for the newspaper El Caribe in the Dominican Republic. Natalí… Read More.


Kimberly Adams

Kimberly Adams covers politics and general news for Marketplace from the Washington, D.C. Bureau. Before moving to D.C., Kimberly reported on the political, social and economic upheaval in Egypt following… Read More.

Original Publication
Marketplace
Related Topics
Politics
More From These Authors
Dominicanos llegan indocumentados a EEUU a través de México
Natali Faxas-Guzman
“Ruben’s grocery”, el supermercado para los que extrañan su hogar
Natali Faxas-Guzman
Los peligros de la travesía desde México hacia Estados Unidos
Natali Faxas-Guzman
Policing both sides of the border in Nogales
Kimberly Adams
Mexican workers warily follow Trump policies
Kimberly Adams
Both sides of the border weigh in on Trump’s security plans
Kimberly Adams

Sign Up For Our Mailing List

Mission

We unleash the potential of women journalists as champions of press freedom to transform the global news media.

Address

1625 K Street NW, Suite 1275
Washington, DC 20006, USA

Contact Us

info@iwmf.org
(+1) 202-496-1992

Connect
Privacy Terms of Service

Copyright © 2023 International Women's Media Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
Nonprofit Web Design by NMC.