“It is not possible, it is not right that a single senator represents so many migrants abroad,” said Karina Ruiz, the first elected migrant senator from Mexico in the United States, during an interview with Article14
By Gardenia Mendoza | Articulo 14 | Sept. 9, 2024 | Photo Courtesy of Articulo 14 | Translated by CMSC Staff
When it comes to perseverance, Karina Ruiz has something to do with it. Born in Tlanepantla , a suburb near Mexico City in 1985, her parents took her across the border when she was a teenager and since then her tenacity has become a culture that has led her to become, as of this month, the first migrant senator in the country where she was born.
Without documents in the United States , immigration officials detained her and her parents fourteen times in the middle of the desert, the same number of times they insisted until they settled in Phoenix, Arizona, where they lived their life against the current: her family was divided.
“I was the first child, I was born 11 years after my youngest brother, there were five of us, two men and three women, the oldest left first, my parents took me with them and the rest stayed ,” she said in an interview with Article14.
The plan was for the others to catch up with them, but it was postponed indefinitely due to the traumatic experience of the parents crossing without documents, because it became more dangerous when the drug cartels took control of the trafficking of undocumented immigrants and the others made their lives.
A symbol for the family
The Ruiz family suffered the separation from the families of millions of Mexicans who have emigrated to the United States , where they realized that they no longer had a single bedroom like in Mexico , nor did they suffer from hunger, but now they lacked the hugs of other children and siblings.
In 2020, her father died of Covid-19 in Arizona . He never saw the children he left behind in his country again and the mother still sees the possibility of regularizing her immigration status as a distant prospect, so her daughter's trip on August 29 to take possession of her seat in the Senate was symbolic.
“She is very proud ,” the legislator emphasizes.
The fight for migrant rights
Karina Ruiz was able to win a seat thanks to the more than three decades of struggle by migrants in the United States for their political rights in Mexico . It is not yet established in the Constitution but as an Affirmative Action that obliges parties to include them in the lists of proportional representation.
In 2021, 10 representatives of the diaspora in the United States were elected to the House of Representatives , and this year they were also allowed to participate in the Upper House on the condition that it only be one seat.
In first person
Ruiz emerged as the best choice due to her history as an activist for the rights of undocumented immigrants. She is the first, and is grateful, but she arrives with a flag of questions: why only one seat when there are 12 million Mexicans -only first generation- who live abroad and represent the main source of foreign currency in Mexico?
"It is not possible, it is not right that a single senator represents so many migrants abroad," she said.
Long career
At 40, when some American women have their first child, Karina Ruiz already has two grandchildren and three sons, ages 22, 14 and 12. She became a mother at a very young age and lived through many stages of life, with its joys, sorrows and ups and downs.
She began studying for a degree in Biochemistry in 2005 and did not finish it until 2015, because in addition to baby bottles and diapers, she also fought as a social activist against local laws against immigration.
Led by radical politicians like the notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio , Arizona eliminated bilingual education in the 21st century and forced undocumented students like Ruiz to pay tuition as foreign students at state universities, a law that prevailed for years until recently.
She also navigated Proposition 300, a bill that denied children of immigrant parents the right to daycare, and if she hadn't become a " Dreamer ," as people who benefit from the DACA program are known , she would never have finished her degree in biochemistry.
DACA is a program implemented by former President Barack Obama that allows people who came to the United States as minors to obtain a work and residence permit that must be renewed every two years if they meet the requirements of no criminal record, are good students, and work.
Karina Ruiz realized that the fight is an everyday one , that it never ends, especially for a non-white woman, when she finished her studies in biochemistry: “I told myself: now I have the degree and I don't have a work permit.”
Such awareness led her to become executive director of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition (ADAC), an organization through which she continues to advocate for inclusive policies for Dreamers while also getting involved in the intricacies of Mexican public life.
Second half
In 2017, the senator learned that Professor Armando Vázquez Ramos , founder of the California-Mexico Studies Center (at the state university), was organizing cultural immersion groups with dreamers who wanted to return to Mexico, and she signed up for a trip.
This is how she met President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum when she was still mayor of Mexico City and visited the Foreign Ministry, where she made connections and later participated in social and diplomatic events in the United States.
One day she saw Morena's call for those who wanted to register as migrant candidates for Congress. And the rest is history. And the future.
