The Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) protects immigrants and refugees by collecting and analyzing data on ICE’s violent activities, interrupting arrests and deportations, providing free know-your-rights trainings, accompaniment programs, connecting families with legal support, and more. WAISN’s network has grown to be active in 22 of Washington’s 39 counties.

In just four years WAISN has become the largest immigrant-led coalition in Washington state. They do so much more than fending off ICE — their organizing model sets a standard for grassroots base building, incorporating tactics that reach thousands of people, share skills and knowledge, and build leadership from the ground up, all led by people most impacted by immigration injustice. WAISN is a recipient of the Fund 4 the Frontlines Basebuilding grant, SJF’s 5-year, $250,000 grant to help level-up grassroots basebuilding in our region.

Originally recorded in May of 2020, we talked with Brenda Rodriguez Lopez, one of WAISN’s warm, brilliant, and driven Co-Directors.

What’s your role at WAISN, and why do you do the work?

I am the Co-Director for the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, and I’m based in Kennewick, WA. I come to this work as someone who is directly impacted: as someone who was undocumented and whose family continues to be undocumented, and living in rural communities and working in agriculture. I’m in this work out of survival, to protect and defend me and my family and my community. As someone who’s lived in Eastern Washington, in a rural community that has felt forgotten for many years, it was important for me to come back and build community power. Living in a rural, conservative area, the people who have power do not represent our best interests. So there’s a feeling of frustration, powerlessness and that our voices don’t matter.

Read the full article about WAISN and Brenda Rodriguez Lopez by Alison Cheung at Social Justice Fund NW