By Matthew Holloway |

The ASU ‘Aliento’ Club, a pro-illegal immigration activist nonprofit funded by George Soros, hosted a training workshop entitled “Know your Rights,” aimed at providing illegal immigrant students with strategies to avoid deportation.

According to Cronkite News, the event “aimed to empower students with information about their rights following the changing landscape of U.S. immigration policies.” Co-chair of Aliento at ASU Emily Sotelo Estrada told Cronkite, “All of these students … they have homes. They have families. And it’s important that they know their rights. So the purpose of this presentation was to, for one, educate them, because we at Aliento believe that that’s the most important, most powerful tool that we all have.”

In a post to X, Aliento stated that the organization had made presentations to “240+ students, 21 schools, 75 conversations,” as well as “two powerful days at the AZ Capitol!”

The group also celebrated an Aliento protest led by Estrada against a peaceful tabling demonstration by the College Republicans United at Arizona State (CRU) on February 5th.

As reported by the Arizona Daily Independent, Aliento was founded by Reyna Montoya, who was the recipient of $132,200 in seed-money from George Soros’ Open Society Institute in 2016-18 “to organize people directly affected by the immigration detention system to generate narratives that emphasize the humanity of those in detention and to create policy recommendations for reform.”

The workshop provided ASU’s illegal immigrant and activist students with useful tips such as how to readily identify ICE vehicles, the laws surrounding legal searches, and contact numbers for immigration attorneys.

In an image published by Cronkite, an Aliento slide can be seen advising illegal immigrants to “Have a U.S. citizen or someone who is not undocumented drive,” and “Limit your driving to essentials,” in addition to advising that with police, “Know any interaction could lead to an arrest,” and that they should “Discern emergency from help,” suggesting that they should avoid contacting police except as a last resort.

The organization also advised illegal immigrants to explicitly use their U.S.-born children as proxies to interact with state agencies suggesting: “ONLY give information to US Children when asking for public benefits – DO NOT LIE or give inaccurate info.”

Diana Cortes, program chair for Aliento at ASU, told the university publication, “The fear and everything that’s growing – we’re just here to listen to the people’s concerns and address them. We’re having ‘Know Your Rights’ and all of those workshops in response to what’s being asked from us from our community.”

Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.