We Need Your Help!
Call on Congress to Protect ALL Families. 

Dear Allies,

We hope that you and your families are staying safe and healthy in these uncertain times. As the COVID crisis unfolds, we know that an effective public health response requires access to care and critical resources for ALL community members.  In today’s newsletter, we are sharing opportunities for you to tell Congress that services must be afforded to ALL families—regardless of immigration status. We also have resources for your work with immigrant families and a registration link for a short campaign-wide call on Wednesday. 

URGE CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP TO INCLUDE ALL FAMILIES IN COVID 3.0

Congressional negotiations are moving forward quickly and there is limited time remaining to influence the next COVID legislative response package. Here are 2 ways you can tell leadership that ALL families should have access to essential programs.

1. Our friends at Coalition for Human Needs are hosting a Tweetstorm TODAY, Monday March 23 from 2-4pm ET. They have developed an impressive tookit for partners to use, which includes a section of tweets focused on immigrant families. We encourage everyone to participate, using the hashtags #ProtectALLPeople and #ProtectFamilies. 

2. The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) has drafted a sign-on letter to urge Democratic Leadership in Congress to remove the immigrant family exclusions to the bill. To view the text of the letter and add your organization to the list of signatories, click here. The deadline to sign-on has been EXTENDED to March 23rd at 5pm ET. 

JOIN US ON WEDNESDAY
FOR A STATE OF PLAY CALL

On Wednesday, March 25 at 12pm ET, 9am PT, please join us for a short, 30 minute state of play call with status updates from NILC, CLASP and several PIF partners. We will provide information about ongoing public charge litigation and implementation of the DOS and DHS regulations. We will also discuss immigrant access to health care and other resources in light of COVID including key messages and new policies impacting eligibility and access to care. Click here to register. 

NEW COVID-RELATED RESOURCES

• Access to health care for immigrants and their family members. NILC has created a new resource, available here. 

• Talking points for immigrant families are available here. We encourage you to lift these up through social media, ethnic media and in your additional community outreach/education efforts. 

• Partner resources. Several of our state and local partners have developed excellent resources to support COVID outreach and advocacy efforts. Here are a few examples. Has your organization developed additional resources? Please share them with us at [email protected]. 

  • Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition created a factsheet for immigrant families, available in English and Spanish. 

  • South Carolina Appleseed has created a comprehensive database for South Carolina families searching for answers about food access, housing, consumer protection,  healthcare and other developments -- in English and Spanish.  

  • Legal Aid Justice Center has created a list of calls to action to protect low-income Virginia residents and communities of color.

  • New York Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs has Coronavirus factsheets and flyers available in over 20 languages. 

Thank you for your continued partnership!

Madison Allen, Center for Law and Social Policy, &
Connie Choi, National Immigration Law Center

Visit us at https://protectingimmigrantfamilies.org/