Marisa Limón Garza has helped over 3,000 migrants amid surge in Texas,

Seven years ago, Marisa Limón Garza suddenly felt a need to return to the Borderland.

An El Paso native, Limón Garza, worked in advertising in Austin. But she remembered her parents – longtime local political activists – had always emphasized the importance of helping the most vulnerable populations in her hometown.

Her first job after moving back was as deputy director for the Hope Border Institute, a migrant policy advocacy and humanitarian organization, where she oversaw research and facilitated coordination among the city’s migrant shelter providers.

Marisa Limon Garza, Executive Director of Las Americas is photographed at the border wall in El Paso, Texas.

In 2022, she became the executive director of the local legal aid group Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center. Founded in 1987 as an offshoot of El Paso’s storied Annunciation House, Las Americas has in recent years been busier than ever amid a surge of migrations. Last year, the organization helped more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants fight deportation cases, pursue citizenship and generally navigate the legal process for immigration.

It also joined a lawsuit that successfully overturned a Texas immigration law that would have deputized state law enforcement to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants.

Limón Garza has often seen her work as an extension of her hometown’s ingrained belief in movement — immigration — as natural and healthy.

“It’s part and parcel of who we are,” she said.

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Marisa Limon Garza, Executive Director of Las Americas is photographed outside her offices in El Paso, Texas.

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Who paved the way for you? Who did you look up to?

I think the person that most paved the way for me, and that I look up to tremendously, is my mother. Her name is Lily Limón, and she has, along with my father, really made it very clear that we are a family of public servants, that we’re really invested in what community is.

(My mother’s) been a past school administrator. She’s currently a city council representative and she’s just taken on leadership at times when, particularly as a woman, it wasn’t always expected. She began her career focusing on education, and then branched out into administration and has really pushed organizations like the El Paso Commission for Women forward, and has really done a lot of things that bring other people alongside her. That’s been an example of how to lead and how to be intentional about the work that you do and how to bring folks along.

What is your proudest moment?

The victories that we have every day with our clients are incredibly important in the work of immigration, specifically legal services. You measure some of the victories in very big ways, like someone becoming naturalized, or receiving citizenship status, and then other times where you’re able to appeal someone’s decision while they’re in immigration detention. So the victories are different. It’s not always going to be a big, splashy one, but I’m really grateful and proud of the way that the team has been able to mark those and to stay committed to the people that we serve.

What is your lowest moment?

This field is challenging by nature. Our team doesn’t win every case and a lot of times there are policies that impact people’s lives in real ways that happen very quickly.

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Right now we are in a lot of discernment over how to best serve our community, and so this current moment has been pretty, pretty difficult — making sure that we have all the right information, that we have everyone queued in to to be at their best and that we are providing everybody with the tools that they need to be successful.

It’s kind of like, if not us, then who? And, if not now, then when? And to me, that’s when you step up and do your best to make sure that we continue to meet our mission and assist as many people as possible, while also retaining balance for our team, so that they’re also not burning out and they can sustain the commitment to the mission longer, because it’s going to take more effort, more energy, to persist.

How do you define courage? And how do you find it in your work?

I define courage as the ability to step in when things get hard and when there’s fear, and to continue to persist. I think the folks that I see sometimes display this the most are some of the clients that we serve. They are often of very limited financial means, are making big decisions in their lives and have taken the agency to move forward. It’s incredibly inspiring to see the courage that people display for their own lives and for their families.

What’s the most important thing you can impact going forward?

I think the biggest thing right now that I can impact moving forward is continuing to be a guidepost for (my) team. As we are in these very challenging times, we measure things daily — the victories of the day. I can’t predict the future, and so it’s persisting day in, day out with the folks that are part of this organization.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso native is USA TODAY Women of Year honoree

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