,
As a committed NILC supporter, you and your partnership are crucial to our ability to sustain our work in these difficult days. We want to give you special insight into what we’ve been up to the last several months since this pandemic began. It’s clear COVID-19 is exacerbating longstanding income and racial inequities in our society, devastating communities of color and low-income immigrants, millions of whom are working at the forefront of confronting this public health crisis. While immigrants are among the many doing jobs essential to keeping our country going during this crisis — caring for our loved ones in our hospitals, stocking our grocery stores, and harvesting food for our meals — Congress continues to exclude them from receiving the financial relief they need to make ends meet. You have the power to change that and ensure Congress takes action for all communities. Will you take a moment to contact your senators today and tell them that we are all safer, healthier, and stronger when everyone has access to the basic COVID-19 health and economic relief we need to weather this crisis? In the meantime, I want you to know, we’re not waiting on Congress to act. NILC has taken immediate action of our own. Thanks to the generous support of partners like you, we have been able to provide subgrants to dozens of grassroots organizations across the country that work directly with immigrant communities impacted heavily by COVID-19. These emergency funds are supporting our communities’ most immediate and pressing needs: providing short-term housing and helping pay utility bills, stocking local food pantries, providing needed cash to unemployed people, providing health and nutrition support, and ensuring that immigrant communities have access to COVID-19 testing and care. Our grants will also bring vital information to communities through the development of know-your-rights materials on access to health services, workers’ rights, and immigration enforcement, videos in people’s native languages, and workplace safety protections. To be clear, these grants are necessary because Congress has failed to do its job and pass the inclusive legislation our country needs to get through this crisis. Make sure your senators know that we are all safer and stronger when we all have access to COVID-19 health care and economic relief. Here at NILC, we will continue to support local organizations that provide direct support to immigrant communities across our country, from Arizona to Illinois, Kansas to Massachusetts, Michigan to Oregon, however we can — while pushing our representatives in Congress to do their jobs and look out for all of us. Because we know that the only way to make this country stronger is to ensure that we are all safe and healthy. With gratitude and wishes for your good health, Marielena Hincapié
Executive Director
National Immigration Law Center | 
