Sunday night, at SFO, two federal agents, plain clothes, no badges visible, detained a woman in the airport terminal. Videos captured the mother clinging to a bench while her daughter stood beside her. A row of SFPD officers formed a line so the agents could wheel the mother away. The little girl walked out holding the hand of one of the agents, who said, in Spanish: “Vente.” Come on.
ICE agents are deploying to major airports across the country in an effort to suppress our long standing movements. Now it’s more important than ever to continue to fund the work, stand with impacted communities, and choose collective protection over silence.
We are living in a moment that demands more than outrage, it demands each other. The Solís Policy Institute has been built on this idea that our outrage can be channeled into solutions. We know protecting our community often depends on who is in the rooms where decisions get made. Whether it’s budget hearings, city council chambers, school board meetings, this unglamorous machinery of local governance is where we need to organize.
Solís Policy Institute Local is a six-month fellowship for people who understand this. Fellows work on real policy in LA County, learning to move budgets, shape legislation, and influence the decisions that touch people’s daily lives most directly.
This fellowship is for you if:
- You live in LA County or dedicate at least half your work to communities here.
- You are genderqueer, non-binary, a cis woman, or a trans person ready to lead boldly.
- You know a little about policy advocacy and hunger for the skills to go deeper.
- You are ready to show up fully — every retreat, every seminar, every session matters.
Key Dates:
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Application Deadline: TOMORROW, March 25th, 2026
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Fellowship: June – November 2026
If you’re not in LA: pass this to someone who is. Or join us and invest in local community leaders.
California has sanctuary laws. San Francisco has its own ordinance. Those protections exist because people built them, fought for them, showed up repeatedly in rooms that offered no applause and no viral moment. That’s where power actually lives.
To show up for your community is to practice, in the most concrete terms possible, the belief that all people deserve safety, dignity, and a life that isn’t determined by the violence of people with more power than conscience.