Laura Cano drops off a stack of small red cards at Casa Guanajuato, a cultural and community center in Oak Cliff, in the neighborhood where she was raised.
The cards — small enough to fit in a wallet — explain in English and Spanish a person’s legal rights if they’re approached by ICE. For several weeks, Cano’s been handing the cards out at places like soccer games and grocery stores. She gives them to teachers who place them in their students' backpacks to share with parents.
“It just gives them a little education and hope, empowering them somewhat, letting them know that they have rights too,” she said.
Her goal is to inform community members who are scared because of the Trump administration’s immigration policy changes and promises of mass deportations. Reports of Immigration Customs Enforcement activity in neighborhoods across North Texas, including Oak Cliff, have been rampant online. Cano can identify with these fears. She and her family moved to Dallas from Mexico when she was young.
“That fear that took a long time to go away, thinking each and every time that we walked home from school that the migra was going to pick us up.” She and her brother thought the brown UPS truck was an ICE vehicle.
So when Cano saw a post online, she got inspired to do something.
“A lady who I've never met, a complete stranger said, ‘I am making red cards for anyone who needs them,’” she said. “I messaged her and I said, ‘I would love to pass these out for you.’”
"Everybody just seems very affected by everything that's going on, so they're looking for ways to help."
Cano is one of the many everyday people who are putting their granito de arena — or doing their part — to provide resources to people who might not know where to turn.
"Everybody just seems very affected by everything that's going on, so they're looking for ways to help," said Erica Cardiel Guevara, a traveling nurse.
Like Cano, she also saw a way to get involved through social media. She’s an administrator for the Oak Cliff Madre Facebook page and is active on the Latin Ladies of Oak Cliff page, where she offers resources and answers questions.
“Just being there when somebody needs help,” she said.
She posted online recently asking what the community needed – and received dozens of responses from people offering everything from free immigration resources to grocery pickup for anyone too scared to leave their homes.
“People are legit scared to go outside of their home, especially if both mom or dad or whatever situation it is to go out together,” Cardiel Guevara said.
It’s a concern she knows well: When she was growing up, she said her parents, who didn’t have legal status in the U.S., would never go out together for fear that they would both get picked up by ICE.
Back at Casa Guanajuato, founder Tereso Ortiz is known as a community connector who often helps or shares resources with anyone who asks. Past the vibrant murals of the Virgen de Guadalupe and Mexican landscapes on the walls of the community hub, Ortiz sits in this office fielding calls. Most of them, he said, are related to immigration.
“I used to receive about 30 to 35 calls a day, but now I’m receiving 60 calls or so,” he told KERA in Spanish. “I answer all of them, and most likely have a solution. It’s important to respond.”
Laura Cano said if someone is able to do something to help, even something as small as handing out cards, they should.
“Do as much as you can just to be able to be the light for others,” she said. “And that's the most important thing because they may need it."
Priscilla Rice is KERA’s communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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