This is Laura Hernandez. 

Laura Hernandez was born in Mexico and raised in Santa Ana, where she finds home and community. She is the eldest daughter out of three siblings, Christina and Sarah who are her younger sisters, and an older brother named Richard. She is also the right hand of her mother, Rocio. She currently co-collaborates and serves as the director of a justice organization that provides rapid response and participatory defense for folks affected by the justice system and ICE. 

As the system has affected her community, she witnesses the breaking of families and the tear in morale of the those around her. She is an unrelenting fire that shines continually to provide guidance for every single family seeking help, especially those who she feels that they’re at their ultimate low. She’s a container for her community’s pain and treats the world with an inviting and powerful hope for change. 

I met Laura while seeking help for my own family's court case. A day after our initial meeting, she immediately provided her support and courageously showed up to court despite this being her first mental health court case. She responds RAPIDLY! Her swift call to action is her typical cadence. She recognizes families are in a state of heightened anxiety. She also provides bilingual court support and will drive any distance to show up! Laura advocates for policies that will impact the lives of thousands of BIPOC community members caught in the immigration/criminal legal systems. Friends and family could see Laura as the busy bee that runs an emergency line responding to families desperate to find support for their loved ones. She’s simultaneously leading the Orange County Rapid Response Network (OCRRN) while caring for her loving husband, her mother, and sisters. No one I know takes on the world as Laura does. 

However, this may all come to an end if Laura does not receive a pardon from Governor Newson. As integral to our communities as she is, she’s still fighting her own fight. If Laura does not receive this pardon, she will most likely be deported back to a country that is not her home. She will be without resources. This potential situation contrasts tremendously to the community she has built up tirelessly for herself here in Orange County, California. Hundreds of the lives relying on Laura's support and knowledge will be without the advocate that has fought for their rights against familial separation. OCRRN and other community organizations uplifted by Laura's boundless energy and fierce love will be without their leader. 

From OCRRN: Thanks to Laura's presence, "the Network has more than doubled in size and has been able to advance its advocacy efforts by participating in and often leading collaborative spaces such as the Dignity Not Detention coalition, the Resisting Surveillance Network (RSN), and Orange County Opportunity Initiative, among others. She has also advocated for the VISION Act, the Home Act, and an end to all ICE Transfers in Orange County!" If Laura receives her pardon, she will definitely continue to pave the way for community building, bring up new collaborators and leaders, promote skill-sharing, and human rights advocacy that will continue for the foreseeable future.

Laura has dedicated her life: “I’ll try to burn as bright as I can and share my skills so someone else can pick up the torch after me.” Laura has never showed up in half measures, she shows up in all that she is — in co-learning, in happiness, and in despair. She co-journeys with all the folks and the lives she touches. 

As Laura has rallied for all of us and those she serves, it’s our turn now to rally for her. We will not stop until Laura is pardoned! 

(Image Desciption: Laura Pictured on Far Right with sister and mother.)

(Image Description: Laura pictured as third from the left individual with sisters and mother)