Your voice matters! Help us get DHS & DOJ to team up and protect immigrant family caregivers! SIGN NOW

Dear Friend,

“My wife is my caregiver. I am a U.S. Army Disabled Veteran and USCIS does not want to grant her citizenship. We have been together and married for over 20 years.”
- Esteban, MomsRising member 

SIGN ON: Tell the Department of Homeland Security & Department of Justice to use their powers and protect long-term resident caregivers! *When you click, you’ll automatically sign on if we already have your information.

What’s going on? Not only are immigrants 27 percent of the direct care workforce, including home health aides, personal health aides, and nursing assistants, many immigrants are caring for family members as well. [1] Too often, immigrants, like Esteban’s wife, carry out significant caregiver responsibilities for their U.S. citizen spouses or children but live in immigration limbo without a pathway to citizenship or permanent status. 

But there’s a simple solution! And it’s within the government’s hands to resolve this, keep families together, and support caregivers. Under current laws, already in place, certain immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for 10 years, have passed background checks, and whose removal from the country would cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a U.S. citizen (or green card holder) family member may request “cancellation of their removal” before an immigration judge. What this means is certain individuals, who are already in removal proceedings, could ask the judge to “cancel” their removal if they’re a family caregiver like Esteban’s wife. But the current process requires immigrants to already be in removal proceedings. We need to make this process more accessible for family caregivers.   

QUICK SIGNATURE: Let’s get government agencies to work together to help protect immigrant family caregivers! *When you click, you’ll automatically sign on if we already have your information.

Here’s the solution: We need the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to direct their office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to collaborate with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR). (Yes, it's a complicated alphabet soup!) Together, these two offices, USCIS and EOIR, would work together on rulemaking for a streamlined cancellation of removal process.

We know with our collective voices we can push USCIS and EOIR to work together and make cancellation of removal more accessible for immigrant family caregivers! We need to make it easier for family caregivers, not harder. And removing more caregivers from our communities will not only separate families, but also exacerbate the labor shortage in the caregiving professions.

Don’t forget to add your name! When you click, you’ll automatically sign on to our letter that reads:

We urge you to support immigrant caregivers and their families. We know we currently have a broken immigration system and while we support a wider bundle of policies to protect long-term residents, we want to highlight the efforts your offices can commit to right now to support family caregivers. 

Not only are immigrants 27 percent of the direct care workforce, including home health aides, personal health aides, and nursing assistants, many immigrants are caring for family members as well.

We need to make it easier for family caregivers, not harder. And removing more family caregivers from our communities will not only separate families, but also exacerbate the labor shortage in the caregiving professions. We encourage your offices, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), to work together on a joint effort and facilitate access to the cancellation of removal process for immigrant family caregivers. 

This action could help protect thousands of immigrant family caregivers whose removal from the country would otherwise cause exceptional & extremely unusual hardship to a U.S. citizen (or green card holder) family member. This could also help keep families together and protect parents with children who are U.S. citizens.  

Please show your support for the moms, dads, and others who are caring for their loved ones by supporting all efforts to protect immigrant families and immigrant family caregivers. 

**Make sure to sign our letter now calling on DHS & DOJ to act now and protect immigrant family caregivers! *When you click, you’ll automatically sign on if we already have your information. 

The more people who speak out, the bigger our impact. Please take a moment to forward our action link to your friends and family and share it on social media: [https://action.momsrising.org/sign/immigrant_family_caregiver_rule/?t=15&utm_campaign=outreach&utm_medium=email&utm_source=actionkit&akid=19784%2E2840598%2Eghb3na]

Together we are a powerful voice for the wellbeing of immigrant children and parents. 

- Claudia, Felicia, Xochitl, Linda, Donna, Kristin, and the whole MomsRising.org & MamásConPoder Team

P.S. Do you have an immigrant caregiver in your life that you would like to spotlight? Sharing personal stories is a powerful way to make an impact.

References:

[1] PHI: Bridging the Gap: Enhancing Support for Immigrant Direct Care Workers and Meeting Long-Term Care Needs  

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