Dear John, 

In this week’s newsletter:

• Educational Materials to Promote ITINs
• House Advances Child Tax Credit Bill
• PIF and Children Thrive Action Network on why Immigrant Issues are Children’s Issues
• New Research: Urban Institute report and Data Tool on NC Immigrant Families
• NHeLP Urges FTC to Protect Immigrant Families
• PIF Opposes Immigration / Due Process Attacks

Tax season is a great time to remind community members of the benefits of using an Individual Tax ID Number (ITIN). PIF partnered with NILC, UnidosUS, and CLASP to develop a simple flier for community members, as well as other promotional materials such as social media templates, .gifs, and PSAs in a toolkit to support community-based organizations spreading the word.

Your ITIN, Your Money

Last week, PIF was happy to see the U.S. House of Representatives pass a bipartisan tax bill which expands the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and helps families with children rise out of poverty. Under this bill, children with Social Security numbers would continue to be able to qualify for the CTC regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

During the House debate, some members tried to limit the CTC to children of parents with a SSN, and to take the benefit away from children of immigrant parents with an ITIN. It didn’t pass, but this attack is likely to come up again when the Senate considers the bill. To be clear: all children, regardless of their or their parents’ status should have access to the CTC.

PIF member MomsRising has created a new petition page and a new call-in page. Folks can also text CTC to (888) 418-5699 for a free connection to MomsRising's Senate hotline. Additional resources and materials are available from the Coalition on Human Needs’ toolkit.

The Foundation for Child Development invited PIF director Adriana Cadena and Wendy Cervantes of the Children Thrive Action Network to contribute to its Social Justice for Young Children Conversation blog series. The post underscores the importance of our work for the ¼ of all children who are growing up in immigrant families. And it argues that immigrant families should have an increasing role in shaping the direction of our work.

Read on the FCD Site

At this month’s PIF Research Working Group meeting (Feb 14, 3pm ET), The Urban Institute’s Hamutal Bernstein, Jennifer Haley, and Diana Guelespe will discuss a recently completed project, Supporting North Carolina’s Immigrant Families. Based on 40+ stakeholder interviews, 4 multilingual focus groups, and quantitative analysis, the project assessed barriers and solutions for improving access to the safety net for North Carolina’s immigrant families. Resources include a report, data tool, and fact sheets on specific findings for Spanish, Hmong, and Swahili speaking immigrant families. The presentation will cover both barriers to immigrant families’ enrollment in safety net programs and strategies for state- and county-level improvements to promote access and inclusion. Working group meetings are open to all PIF member organizations. To join the PIF coalition and learn more about our working groups, click here.

Read the Report

Hundreds of thousands of Texans have lost health care access because of an automated eligibility system developed for the state by Deloitte Consulting LLP, a new complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleges. The complaint describes how problems happening in Texas now mirror a history of documented errors in Deloitte Medicaid eligibility systems – including errors causing eligible immigrants and their families to lose coverage. PIF partner National Health Law Program (NHeLP) worked with the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Upturn to file the complaint, asking the FTC to investigate, pause Texas’ the system, and require a comprehensive risk mitigation strategy to protect Texans from losing health coverage.

Learn More on the NHeLP Site

Congressional negotiators have released legislative language for an emergency supplemental bill that also adds sweeping immigration and due process restrictions. PIF released a statement Monday, opposing it. Since then, Republican lawmakers who once championed the bill have largely reversed their positions, and the bill now seems unlikely to advance.

Read the Statement

Visit our website at www.pifcoalition.org

If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe.