Grassroots Leadership

The fastest growing portion of the federal detention population is immigrant detainees, many of whom are held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement or U.S. Marshall Services facilities. These facilities often fail to provide basic necessities like medical care, legal materials, means for communicating with the outside world, and even fresh air. The detentions not only affect the immigrants themselves but also tear apart their families. Against this backdrop, Luissana Santibañez will establish a Texas-based network of former detainees and family members of current detainees to elevate community awareness and build support for policies that protect detainees' rights.

Santibañez is an immigrant rights community organizer who helped organize several major demonstrations in Austin against punitive immigration policy. She works with Texans United for Families, a coalition that aims to close down the privately owned T. Don Hutto immigrant detention center, where more than 200 children and their parents are being incarcerated for noncriminal immigration violations. Santibañez is the co-founder of Madres en Defensa de la Educacion de Nuestras/os Hijas/os, serves on the board of People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources, and is a member of Austin’s American Friends Service Committee Advisory Council. Santibañez’s involvement in immigration detention advocacy began when her mother was detained at a Corrections Corporation of America center in Houston, Texas. Santibañez graduated from the University of Texas.

Austin, TX