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Immigrant Solidarity

For three decades, VIP has worked alongside immigrant neighbors to defend their safety and dignity — from citizenship training and Know Your Rights sessions to winning in-state tuition for undocumented students.

  • 2025-2026 - Organized Know Your Rights Sessions with 1,500 residents to educate immigrants on their constitutional rights and prepare them for interactions with ICE.
  • 2022 - supported Proposition 308’s passage, ensuring all Arizona high school graduates, including Dreamers, pay in-state tuition at our state colleges and universities.
  • 2010 - Anti-immigrant sentiment reached a zenith with the passage of the infamous SB1070. Even so, VIP leaders were able to secure commitments from Phoenix Mayor Gordon and Mesa Mayor Smith and their respective police chiefs that sweeps would not be allowed within their cities.
  • 2007 - After a string of preventable violent crimes, VIP leaders at Santa Teresita Parish in El Mirage demanded that Sheriff Arpaio honor Maricopa County Sherrif's Office (MCSO)'s contractual duty to provide adequate police services. The city ended the contract, exposing hundreds of uninvestigated crimes under MCSO's watch. It was the first challenge to Arpaio in the County, triggering investigations into MCSO — including the racial profiling cases that brought the department under federal court oversight and led to contempt charges against the Sheriff.
  • 2005 - 2006  - An increasingly nativist climate was developing in Maricopa County. Leaders worked tirelessly each legislative session to push back on anti- immigration bills that would undermine our social fabric and our economy, while doing nothing to address the need for comprehensive immigration reform. VIP leaders developed the Immigrant Toolkit, a training for families to help them know their rights and make plans to protect their families.
  • 1995 - VIP leaders began a Citizenship Initiative to provide citizenship and naturalization training for immigrants resulting in 160 applicants to Immigration and Naturalization Service that year.