Despite Deportation Fears, Latino Solidarity For Environment Stays Strong

By Rosanne Skirble, Maryland Matters

October 6, 2025

Abel Olivo wasn’t sure how many people would show up for the fifth annual version of the Latino Leadership Summit held each fall, sponsored by Defensores de la Cuenca — Defenders of the Watershed — a group he leads.

Given the anxiety in the Latino immigrant community over deportations, he feared many would just stay home.

But whatever fears there may have been could not keep a crowd of 100 participants from turning out at Seneca State Park last month for panel discussions, workshops, dancing and a celebration of environmental achievements within their ranks.

Olivo, the founding director of Defensores, said attendance went beyond his expectations, surpassing all previous years.

“That’s a testament to the hard work that we have put in over the years, establishing a level of trust among our participants,” Olivo said. “They felt they were in a safe space.”

Olivo began Defensores in 2020 to connect Latino communities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. He concedes that it was “strange that one would want to start a new endeavor in a pandemic. But the need to address these longstanding environmental, social and economic injustices was just too great not to take action.”

A fourth-generation Mexican American, Olivo has guided that vision into a robust organization, with a full calendar of events that attracts families to the region’s parks. They, in turn, serve as the backdrop for entry into a suite of programs for participants of all ages.

Defensores de la Cuenca's founding director, Abel Olivo, opens the fifth annual fall Latino Leadership Summit at Seneca Creek State Park. (Photo by Rosanne Skirble)

Defensores Academy trains adult community leaders. Its Youth Corps promotes environmental stewardship among young people and the Defensores Tree Ambassadors are foot soldiers in the urban forest, charged with finding places to host and care for trees. Fifty-two ambassadors have run through its classroom certification. More than half were recognized at the summit.

“This year we have a goal [to plant] 2,000 trees in underserved areas,” Olivo said, citing the 2021 Tree Solutions Now Act, legislation that called for planting 5 million native trees across the state, with at least 500,000 of those in marginalized neighborhoods.

The Sept. 11 event was not entirely without a nod to current circumstances: Olivo said a know-your-rights workshop was inserted in the day-long summit.

“Part of leadership is being knowledgeable about the issues of our time and knowing how to navigate various situations and how to incorporate and address those for the benefit of ourselves and others,” he said.

Chispa, a spark for environmental justice

Among the panelists was Ramón Palencia-Calvo, director of Chispa Maryland, a grassroots program of the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund. He said the group’s mission “is to ensure Latino families have strong leadership and power to identify and influence environmental policies and decisions that affect their lives.”

“Our hope is an environmental movement that is inclusive and just, where there is a diversity of voices, those voices are respected as equals, and we want to see those diverse voices leading the movement,” Palencia-Calvo said.

Among Chispa’s most effective advocates are the “promotores” or promoters, members of the Latino community brought together for skills workshops, where they get the tools they need to address pollution where they live. Many of its 125 graduates continue this work in committees established across Maryland.

Palencia-Calvo says these activities are ongoing, adjusting to political realities by meeting online or in safe places.

“One of the things that we bring to this moment is solidarity, how communities come together, regardless of where they were born, regardless of the language they speak,” he said, “they come together to support a healthy environment for their families and for their communities.”

Linda Flores at a 2022 rally for electric school buses in front of the Maryland State House.

Immigrant activist

In that chorus of diversity sits Linda Flores. A physical therapist by training, the El Salvador immigrant came to the United States in 2012 to escape violence, gang activity and extortion in her home country. She is a field worker with the Latino Health Initiative in Montgomery County and has certificates from both Defensores de la Cuenca and Chispa Maryland.

While it is a difficult moment for the community, she says, it hasn’t stopped her from taking immigrant concerns to decision-makers in Annapolis as part of Chispa’s ongoing campaign to replace diesel buses with electric ones.

“We brought our cardboard buses [to Annapolis] and my girls were there, demanding that our political representatives [buy] more electric buses, she said.

She is unafraid to speak out at public events.

“No, I’m not afraid. I served the community during the pandemic, which was a matter of life or death,” she said. “And, now, I have [again] a strong need to serve, and feel like God is protecting me.”

Palencia-Calvo of Chispa — Spanish for “spark” — says that in this work, at this time, connections matter.

“We also have relied and continue to rely very much on partnerships and coalitions, working together with other groups to move the work forward, to continue providing opportunities for engagement and participation.”

Juntos somos más — together we are more

Walkiria Pool is among Chispa’s most powerful allies. An immigrant from the Dominican Republic shortly after high school, Pool comes to the table armed with degrees in psychology and economic development, as well as two decades of experience working with marginalized communities.

In 2006, she founded Centro de Apoyo Familiar (CAF), or the Center for Assistance for Families. Her idea was to tap leaders of faith in the immigrant community.

Walkiria Pool, founder of the Centro de Apoyo Familiar, says unity among all the constituent groups gives voice to change. (Photo by Rosanne Skirble)

“By empowering them, connecting them with resources, and educating them so that their congregants, who have so much trust in them, could receive the assistance they needed in an integrated way,” she said.

What began in Massachusetts expanded to Maryland, Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Puerto Rico, serving more than 55,000 low-income and immigrant families each year with food distribution, environmental and health and justice initiatives, and housing opportunities.

CAF is also the co-anchor of the Mid-Atlantic Justice Coalition, a statewide organization focused on economic and environmental justice.

“We have over 40 groups that work on public policies, legislation, education, community engagement, capacity building, and fundraising,” Pool said, adding that together they coordinate priorities and advocacy.

Pool says among those priorities for 2026 is the reintroduction of the CHERISH Our Communities Act, a bill that would reform Maryland’s permitting system to better protect neighborhoods that already face a heavy burden of pollution. She says, Their voices matter.

“[They] have the right to approve who does or does not enter their community,” Pool said.

Pool acknowledges that these are difficult times to be an immigrant. She tells the majority Latino summit that it is their combined strength that can lift barriers to climate justice.

“We have leaders, committed young people, and a collaborative spirit among us,” she said. “Juntos somos más; together we are more.”