Fernando Mejia Ledesma is the Co-Executive Director of Puget Sound Sage and Sage Leaders. He is one of the earlier undocumented youths who helped build the movement infrastructure for immigrant rights. Born and raised in Cuautitlan Izcalli, Mexico, he came to the United States in search of a better life. From Florida, he moved across the country and attended high school in Idaho. He worked hard to learn English, but not having documents prevented him from attending college.
He started his work in community organizing in April 2004. Risking deportation, Fernando spoke about his status at a rally in support of the DREAM Act. He then worked as a youth organizer and leader with the Idaho Community Action Network (ICAN) from 2004-2009. During his time at ICAN, he highlights his work on the mass mobilizations of 2006 for immigration reform and building a statewide movement for in-state tuition for undocumented youth in Idaho.
From 2010 to 2014, he worked as a national organizer for the Alliance for a Just Society where he led their work on immigrant rights. He built the radio station KBWE as a tool for popular education and grassroots organizing in Idaho, played an interim role as Executive Director of ICAN, and led one of the most aggressive civic engagement campaigns in the country. He also worked in the Fair Immigration Reform Movement Executive Committee’s 2012 civic engagement campaign, which played a major role in re-electing Obama as a strategy to position immigration reform in 2013. Within the same year, he led an aggressive campaign for immigrant rights across the nation. In 2014, he brought together small businesses, small-town Democrats and Republicans, and undocumented immigrants to lobby Congress and got 1,000 small businesses to sign an ad published in The Hill in Washington, DC.
From 2014 to 2016, he began building One America’s grassroots environmental justice work, which helped shift the debate in Washington towards a racial, labor and climate justice perspective. He helped elect the first three Latinas in Yakima’s City Council as he was beginning to build one of the most robust grassroots bases in the state. Towards the end, he helped the organization position itself as an anti-Trump force. Last year, he worked with Communities for Our Colleges in passing a bold systemic policy for equity and access in higher education.
In these campaigns, Fernando worked as a bridge for different elements of the community to realize their collective power to create change. He has also served on the staff of Washington Community Action Network, United We Dream Network, and UFCW Local 21.