UCLA

This research project examines immigrant rights activism in Las Vegas, Nevada and asks: 1. How did Las Vegas activists engage in spatial resistance through their involvement in the immigrant rights movement beginning in 2006? 2. What organizing methods and/or tactics did they utilize? And 3. What did it mean to engage in immigrant rights activism in Las Vegas, an internationally-renowned tourist destination? To create an interdisciplinary frame for this research project, I bridge scholarship across different disciplines and subjects, from Las Vegas history, to immigration studies, and geography. I draw on qualitative interviews with immigrant rights organizers and maps of Las Vegas created during the interview process to argue that Las Vegas immigrant rights organizing was spatial resistance to illegality, racism, and classism as it was produced and practiced in Las Vegas. Participants declare that there is life in Las Vegas beyond the Strip, and that Las Vegas has been a site of critical importance and continued resistance through their maps, interviews, and organizing efforts.