December 27, 2024

Dear John,

While the future may seem uncertain for our immigrant neighbors and their allies, one thing is for sure: the American Immigration Council and the State & Local team remain steadfast in our commitment to working toward a nation that celebrates immigrants’ essential role in our communities and economy. As a new administration prepares to take office in January and state legislators gear up for their 2025 sessions, our team is ready to support on-the-ground partners like you to defend immigrants’ rights and advance inclusive policies. 

The State & Local team is gearing up for 2025 by preparing for state legislative sessions, identifying data needs, and fostering key partnerships. We will continue to do all this work and more alongside other Council departments, who will be working to promote education and advocacy at the federal level, lead litigation and transparency efforts, conduct original research, advance inclusion and belonging, and uplift stories of immigration and immigrants across the country. We’re also excited to announce an open call for volunteers as we expand our Immigration Justice Campaign (IJC), which provides free legal services for asylum seekers, people in immigration detention, and other immigrants who would otherwise go unrepresented. No immigration law experience needed!   

Lastly, our team aims to continuously improve this quarterly newsletter to best support your work, especially as we head into the new year. Your feedback helps us ensure these newsletters are a useful tool and provide you with the information you need. We kindly ask you to take a few minutes to complete this survey.  

Thank you for the important work you do in your community. We appreciate your support and look forward to continuing to partner with you in the year ahead.  

– Rich André, Director of State & Local Initiatives 

• The 2025 state legislative session is just around the corner, and once again, states will be at the forefront of advancing policies that impact immigrant communities. So far, nearly 50 state immigration bills have been pre-filed across the country. While we anticipate positive trends related to workforce integration, education access, and the creation of Offices of New Americans will continue next year, we're also preparing to support our partners in resisting policies that would harm immigrant communities. Check out our blog on Policy Options: Protecting Immigrant Communities at the State and Local Level.

• On election day 2024, voters in cities and states across the country cast ballots on immigrant-related issues, like immigration protections, integration, and noncitizen voting. This blog, Immigration Was on the Ballot in Multiple States on Election Day – Here’s What Happened, summarizes the results.

• In November, the S&L team traveled to Washington, D.C., for our third annual Office of New Americans (ONA) State Network convening. The event, attended by nearly 40 officials from 18 states, provided a critical opportunity to connect, process election results, and strategize for the road ahead. The Network also met with high-level partners from the White House, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and several other federal agencies. In these meetings, ONA states voiced questions and requests to the outgoing administration, learned about their priorities for the remaining term, and connected on how ONA Network members can continue to advance integration efforts in 2025. 

• The S&L team also visited Raleigh, NC, to support our ONA Network partner in the state and to participate in the New Americans, Voices of Experience event. The event celebrated the release of a report with insights from listening sessions conducted by Governor Roy Cooper's Interagency Working Group on New Americans, as well as the launch of the Governor's digital language access assessment, policy, and toolkit. During the event, our S&L team had the opportunity to present our Map the Impact data to showcase the economic contributions of immigrants in North Carolina. 

Offices of New Americans State Network Convening: Washington D.C. // November 2024

• In the fall, the Council, in collaboration with the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP), the Refugee Advocacy Lab, and AILA, published a business sign-on letter alongside 100 business leaders urging the Biden administration to take action to eliminate the work permit backlog and provide stable access to work permits for all immigrants. This December, we achieved a major victory! The Department of Homeland Security announced a final rule to permanently increase the automatic extension period of certain work permits, from 180 days to 540 days, to prevent gaps in employment. The announcement cites “feedback from the business community” as a motivating factor for this policy decision.   
• Massey Villarreal, a Texas-based CEO, board member of the Greater Houston Partnership, and chairman of the Texas Association of Business, authored an op-ed published in the Houston Chronicle discussing how mass deportation would negatively impact Texas’ workforce.
• Steve Stephens, CEO of Amegy Bank, a member of Texans for Economic Growth, and chair of the Greater Houston Partnership’s immigration committee, provided guest commentary in the Houston Business Journal, discussing the need for comprehensive immigration reform and pointing to Houston as an example of what’s possible.

• The Colorado Business Coalition for Immigration Solutions (CBCIS), the Council’s business coalition in the state, supported efforts to increase language access at the state capitol. The bill, HB24-1368, established a language access advisory board, which the Council and CBCIS contributed to by sharing data and recommendations and connecting the committee to language access experts. The committee published its recommendations before the end of the year. 

• CBCIS and the Council submitted written testimony in support of HB24-1280 which created a statewide welcome, reception, and integration grant program for community organizations working with newly arrived migrants.   

• In September, CBCIS organizer Brock Herzberg participated in a panel, The People’s Forum on Immigration, hosted by the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, American Friends Service Committee, Radio Bilingüe, and the ACLU of Colorado. The panel discussed the impact of restrictive immigration policies on Coloradans and provided a platform for fostering dialogue, providing accurate information, and offering a deeper perspective of U.S. immigration policies. Brock shared ideas for how to improve the federal immigration system and how Colorado can advance immigrant inclusion in the state.    

• In October, Brock led a presentation and interactive session at Philanthropy Southwest's annual gathering in Santa Fe, New Mexico, alongside Chelsie Kramer, the Council's Texas State Organizer and Texans for Economic Growth (TEG) organizer. The session, titled Breaking Down Silos: Fostering Unity in Action on Immigration, was an opportunity to share how to create a business coalition, best practices for creating and working with diverse coalitions, and how to make meaningful progress on immigrant and immigration-related issues.     

Chelsie Kramer (left) & Brock Herzberg (right): Santa Fe, NM // October 2024

• In October, the Ninth Circuit ruled that turnback practices and metering policies used at U.S.-Mexico ports of entry since 2016 are violations of immigration law, reaffirming that these ports should serve as safe access points for individuals seeking humanitarian relief. 

• On November 1, regulations allowing DACA recipients to access healthcare coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace were enacted. These regulations, which were challenged by a group of Republican-led states and were temporarily blocked by a federal judge in 19 states, will currently provide DACA recipients who live in the 31 other states with the opportunity to purchase health insurance.    

• On November 7, a U.S. District Court ruled against the Biden administration's Keeping Families Together program—which would have allowed certain undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens to apply for parole in place—stating it violates U.S. immigration law. 

• In 2022, alongside Welcoming America, our team launched the fifth round of the Gateways for Growth (G4G) Challenge with ten awardees. Now, two years later, the fifth cohort has come to an official end. Following the launch of the communities' welcoming plans in late 2023 and early 2024, the G4G team provided an additional six months of technical assistance to four communities as they began to implement their plans’ recommendations, including Baltimore County, MD; Fort Wayne, IN; South Bend, IN; and Santa Fe, NM. Over the last six months, communities have been busy in a variety of ways such as hiring additional leading staff, continuing community engagement and educational outreach, and advocating for protections for their immigrant and refugee neighbors. 
• The S&L team attended the 9th Annual Cities for Action (C4A) National Convening in NYC in early December along with local government leaders, advocates, and national partners to discuss common challenges and best practices in advancing immigrant inclusive policies next year. 
• The S&L team met up with the Council’s Center for Inclusion and Belonging team and Texas business organizer in Houston at the 2024 National Immigrant Inclusion Conference. Our staff presented on panels including, “The Role of Offices of New Americans (ONA) in Creating an Inclusive Workforce and Boosting Economic Development” and “Building Coalition Within and Beyond the Immigrants’ Rights Movement.” 

Cities for Action Convening: New York City, NY // December 2024

• Before President Biden leaves office, he can take decisive action to protect people at risk of indiscriminate immigration enforcement plans.

• The Council released a blog to explain the “Bipartisan Border Bill” and how it would change the U.S. immigration system.  

• Writing about the demand for seasonal workers, the Council’s research team explains how the United States’ H-2B visa program isn’t keeping up.

• The Intercept: The Looming Fight to Make Local Cops Part of Trump’s Deportation Machine  

• The Houston Chronicle: How Trump’s Plans for Mass Deportation Would Affect Houston’s Economy: ‘Prices Are Going to Go Up” 

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