This UNC grad is working with local undocumented residents as they face uncertainty

Led by the daughter of undocumented immigrants, Apoyo: Centro para la Comunidad works tirelessly to assist undocumented Latinx communities in Orange County in the wake of recent ICE raids.

UNC-Chapel Hill graduate Rubí Quiroz used all her information on community organizing that she obtained through Siembra NC, a group that does similar work in the Piedmont Triad area, to start her organization.

"The day of the ICE raids my mom was home, and I was terrified,” Quiroz said. “I was freaking out, and I just thought to myself: We need to do better to protect our own. I just graduated, I have all these resources."

Marco Cervantes, a member of Apoyo and longtime friend of Quiroz, said he contacted Siembra NC on how to start community communication networks or group messages for neighborhoods to relay valuable information.

"Chapel Hill prides itself in that we consider our city a sanctuary city, but the ICE raids really showed that we weren't as prepared for the situation as we thought we would be,” Quiroz said, adding that the tactics employed in the ICE raids were unacceptable. “We had some people taken because ICE officers told them, ‘Can you help me fix my car?’”

Apoyo recruits volunteers to go door-to-door in communities with a large population of undocumented residents. In these communities, volunteers teach the residents everything from identifying ICE agents to knowing their rights when speaking to an agent.

The group is currently working with the undocumented community in Nature Trail, which is the largest mobile home park in Chapel Hill. Moving forward, they hope to branch out of Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

“The ultimate goal we have is to be able to hold each other accountable and trust each other in our own neighborhoods,” said Cervantes. “We want to be able to communicate with each other about not only suspicious activity in the neighborhood but also opportunities for growth.” 

Damon Seils, a member of Carrboro’s Board of Aldermen, said the city supports its undocumented residents. Though they have not worked with Apoyo, the town has provided resources to El Centro Hispano, which shares similar goals and methods as Apoyo.

“We began working with them to connect them to information from the police department in Carrboro so that they could locate relatives of the people who had been abducted,” Seils said. 

The city has worked to connect legal assistance to the people who were detained and to help locate their family members, he said.

Though Seils says there is not much the city can do besides providing information to these groups, the city has also successfully organized community events for undocumented workers.

“One of the things we did immediately with El Centro after the ICE action is we helped them put on a Know Your Rights event here in Carrboro,” Seils said. “We also had members of local law enforcement there so that they could see what our local law enforcement uniforms look like and how to differentiate their uniforms from whatever ICE agents may be wearing.”

Seils also stated that the local police departments, including Chapel Hill and Orange County Sheriff's Departments, do not participate in ICE activity.

Cervantes described a time when Quiroz and some other volunteers were reported to the police. When the officers arrived and heard about Apoyo’s mission, he said they expressed their full support for Quiroz and the residents.

"In general, Carrboro does have a large immigrant community, and I think we just know from anecdotal evidence that many of those people are probably undocumented,” Seils said. “As far as we're concerned, as a town, everyone is welcome here."