Executive Director Luz Gallegos joins Healthy Desert Healthy You host Will Dean to discuss how TODEC Legal Center supports immigrant families across the Coachella Valley and Inland Empire during a time of intensified immigration enforcement. She explains TODEC’s roots in organizing farm workers, the growing fear affecting mixed-status families, and the economic, emotional, and mental health toll on communities when people are too afraid to work, seek care, or send children to school. Luz also shares how Red Cards help people assert constitutional rights, why documenting encounters matters, and how TODEC connects families to legal aid, food, and other support. Most of all, she highlights the power of community action, faith, and compassion. In the face of trauma and uncertainty, Luz reminds us that love, solidarity, and hope remain essential tools for healing and resilience together.

Takeaways:

• TODEC was founded in the 1980s to organize and advocate for farm workers and immigrant families in inland border communities.
• Luz Gallegos says immigration enforcement is not new, but current enforcement has intensified fear and insecurity.
• Mixed-status families are living with constant anxiety about detention, deportation, and family separation.
• Fear of enforcement is keeping some people from going to work, school, medical appointments, and food banks.
• TODEC has distributed more than 2.5 million Red Cards to help people assert their constitutional rights.
• Luz emphasizes documenting incidents carefully when rights are not respected, including badges, time, place, and vehicles.
• Mental health impacts are severe, and Luz urges systems to expand telehealth and low-barrier support for vulnerable families.
• Community donations, volunteerism, civic engagement, and prayer are helping TODEC respond with food, legal help, and hope.

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