This spring marked one year since I joined the Latino Policy Forum as President and CEO. I arrived right after a new federal administration took office that sought to redefine who is an American, dramatically reduce the social safety net, disregard longstanding and fair policies and practices towards immigrants and refugees, and rewrite American history.  By April 2025, when I officially joined, the chaos and cruelty were well under way.

Just weeks later, I participated in Latino Unity Day in Springfield. As we were wrapping up the finishing touches in anticipation of the friends, students and community partners that would be joining us the next day in our state capital, we learned that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem would be in Springfield, too. Noem dropping in on the first day of Latino Unity Day, the largest Latino advocacy day in our state was no coincidence. Her intention was to instill fear in us and ruin our celebration. The excited anticipation I felt about my first event as the new leader of the Forum immediately shifted to anxiety about the safety of our community. Would everyone stay home out of fear?

The next day, however, you, and nearly 1,000 people showed up. Community members, advocates, leaders, and an incredible number of allies filled our state capital and declared with one voice: “Immigrants are welcome in Illinois,” and “Kristi, go home!” When I looked out into that crowd, I understood exactly why Illinois is a beacon of hope for families and the incredible responsibility I now carried as the new president and CEO of this powerful organization.

And every day since has confirmed what I learned at that moment: Illinois is blessed with an abundance of leaders: school leaders who know their rights and protect their students; rapid responders who bravely report and alert their neighbors about ICE sightings in their communities; and neighbors who testify about what they have lived and who refuse to remain silent. The Forum also proudly leads advocacy policy regarding investments in education, housing, food and health care access for working Latino and immigrant families who have carried the heaviest burden of federal cuts to public programs and historical disinvestment.

Leadership is also quieter than that. It is the Forum team, community partners, nonprofit advocates and elected officials who spent this past year educating me, with time and care, on the Forum’s vital role in changing systems for Latino families. No leader succeeds without that generosity, and I am deeply grateful.

The Latino Policy Forum is building an ecosystem of leaders and innovative policies that change systems, because policy has an incredible role in all our lives. It is why we ask hard questions about how to bridge divisions of power, and why we believe leadership must be responsive to community. And it is why we keep investing in young leaders through the Multicultural Leadership Academy, our new LEAD Student Fellowship, and our new Associate Board.

This work matters because democracy is an action. The recent Supreme Court decision to uphold birthright citizenship, a Constitutional protection more than 125 years old, reminded me that this federal administration will keep testing our rights. The Latino Policy Forum will be here, and we will keep showing up for Latino families. I hope that you will join us. To learn about future opportunities to get involved, sign up for our mailing list.

As we reimagine the world and society we want because the world we want is possible. And together, we will keep moving adelante.

Con gratitud,
Linda Xóchitl Tortolero

P.S. Latinos on the Move 2026 will take place on October 29 at the Union League Club of Chicago. I hope to see you there!