Amid the Trump administration’s campaign to deport people living in the country illegally, Tulsa groups are taking action on behalf of immigrants — though their strategies for doing so are very different.
Tulsa-based lawyers have said immigration enforcement isn’t at the same level as other major cities across the country. But fear in communities remains high, affecting foot traffic to businesses and drawing protests against Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) outside the Tulsa County Jail, among other locations.
Local organizations, especially those focused on the Latino community, have taken up different roles for informing and advocating on behalf of immigrants, including protests, immigration forums and lawsuits.
Tulsa Latinos Unidos
The grassroots organization Tulsa Latinos Unidos started earlier this year when a group of people decided to bring Tulsans together against ICE for a protest on the pedestrian bridge off Riverside Drive.
Max, the lead organizer of the organization, said Tulsa Latinos Unidos advocates for immigrant rights and provides general information to the community. Max asked the Flyer to not share his full name to protect family members who are in the country illegally.
The organization has hosted protests outside of 1603 S. 101st Ave., where they claim is an ICE holding facility, for nearly two months. The building is listed as a field office for the Department of Defense’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service.
Local activist groups come together each week to support Tulsa Latinos Unidos, including Oklahoma 50501, Indivisible Tulsa County, Tulsa Fights Fascism and more.
“We don’t have any rights without protests,” Max said.
Although protesting is their main form of advocacy, Tulsa Latinos Unidos works to provide Know Your Rights cards to local businesses and communities and adopts families to provide support and help people find a family member if they’re detained.
The organization doesn’t have any plans to stop protesting. They believe an educated community is a strong one, Max said.
“We’re trying to just hold this space for people who care about immigrant rights,” Max said. “…They wanted to be here every single week on Wednesdays. So I said, ‘OK, let’s do it.’”
Frente Unido
Blanca Zavala, a founding member of Frente Unido, hosts forums in Tulsa and surrounding cities to provide immigrants — including those in the country illegally — knowledge about their rights.
Zavala brings in local lawyers, state representatives and local police agencies to provide immigrants direct access to stakeholders and promote community dialogue, she said. She isn’t a lawyer, but she brings in those who understand the law and deal directly with it.
“It’s important to remind them that they also have rights. Even if they don’t have legal status, it doesn’t take away their human rights,” Zavala said.
Immigration forums versus other forms of advocacy allow her to meet a specific goal of informing people, she said.
“It also allows people to understand what’s going on,” she said. “Instead of creating panic in the community, it is empowering people and telling them the truth and providing their rights and Plan Bs for protection.”
She questions whether Tulsa needs protests because immigration enforcement is not at the level it is in major cities.
“What we need right now is creating a strong dialogue with people in charge to figure out how to work together to protect people,” she said.
Padres Unidos de Tulsa
Michelle Lara, founding executive director, created Padres Unidos de Tulsa back in 2022 to amplify student and parent voices at Tulsa Public Schools, especially those who speak Spanish.
It has now evolved to fight for rights beyond the classroom. Padres Unidos de Tulsa, among other advocacy groups, is fighting a state law which creates new penalties and criminal punishments for people living in the country illegally.
Padres Unidos became the face of a May 2024 lawsuit because Lara and her co-organizers wanted to become a shield for people who would be affected by the state law, Lara said. Ultimately, they were protecting parents who didn’t want to jeopardize their own immigration journeys or be put on the spotlight, she added.
The intersection between people’s education and their rights to survive encouraged them to fight for immigrant rights, Lara said. Some people have asked her: “Aren’t y’all an education advocacy organization?”
“We’re like ‘yes, but if we can’t even exist in this space, then we can’t even go to school,’ right?” Lara said. “That’s kind of how we got thrown into the whirlwind.”
Other forms of advocacy are needed during this time, she said. In Padres Unidos’ case, Lara said, the lawsuit was their way of slowing down a law with negative consequences for the community.
“(The lawsuit) has awoken different types of conversations, but also it’s reminding us that there’s a little bit more power within our advocacy then we give credit to,” Lara said.
Lea este artículo en español aquí.
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
