Join Us For A Week of Action

Dear Allies,

Thank you to everyone who joined yesterday’s campaign call on advocating for an immigrant-inclusive COVID relief package. In today’s newsletter, we are sharing additional advocacy resources and have information about opportunities to take action next week. We also have information on the new public charge lawsuit filed yesterday, some good news about public charge and state-funded food programs, and a final call to submit comments in opposition to the Administration’s horrific proposed rule on asylum. 

• July 20: Strike for Black Lives 
  On Monday, July 20, we are united in solidarity with the Strike for Black Lives. A national coalition of labor unions, along with racial and social justice organizations, will stage a mass walkout from work as part of an ongoing reckoning on systemic racism and police brutality in the U.S. Several PIF Active Members, including SEIU, are leaders in this movement. More information is available at https://j20strikeforblacklives.org/. 
   
• July 21-24: Take Action for Immigrant Families 
  From Tuesday 7/21 - Friday 7/24, speak up for immigrant families when Congress returns from the Fourth of July recess. Join the PIF Campaign in a collective effort to urge Senators to support immigrant-inclusive policies in the next COVID relief bill.  There is a limited window for advocacy, as Congress is expected to pass legislation in late July or early August, and then will be out of session until the fall.  To support your efforts, we have an updated federal advocacy toolkit available at bit.ly/PIFCOVIDKIT. The toolkit includes federal policy asks, key messages, state fact sheets, a social media toolkit, and more. 

Yesterday, attorneys from NILC, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Jenner & Block LLP, and Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP filed a case against DHS, USCIS, USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli and acting Secretary of DHS Chad Wolf, challenging the implementation of the DHS public charge regulations. The case was brought on behalf of nine individual plaintiffs and two nonprofit immigration legal service providers, Community Refugee and Immigration Services of Columbus, OH and Immigrant Legal Defense of Oakland, CA.

The complaint alleges that the USCIS Policy Manual, while purporting to implement the regulations, is contradictory to and even more punitive than the regulations, creating additional burdens for immigrants who are applying to adjust to lawful permanent resident status. It also alleges that the information sought in Form I-944 “Declaration of Self-Sufficiency” creates arbitrary and burdensome evidentiary requirements that go beyond and in some cases contradict the regulation. Some of the mountains of information required are irrelevant to the public charge inquiry and appear designed to deter applicants from applying at all.

The USCIS Policy Manual implementing the public charge regulation erroneously included the WA Food Assistance Program for Legal Immigrants as an example of a cash assistance program for income maintenance. This was clearly an error since the program is entirely state-funded and supports nutrition, but the example was causing significant concern for advocates and immigrant families who were eligible for state-funded food assistance programs. Last month, USCIS issued a technical update removing the program from the list of examples of state, local, and tribal cash assistance programs that are considered income maintenance for purposes of the public charge inadmissibility determination. Thank you to the advocates who fought to make this happen! 

The Trump Administration has issued a new proposed rule on asylum that would further close the door to people fleeing persecution. Tomorrow, July 15 is the last day to comment on these proposed changes to U.S. asylum law and policies which include: 

• Categorically denying claims of persecution or the fear of persecution based on gender, excluding transgender people, women and girls fleeing countries where the government fails to protect them from crimes including rape, domestic violence and sexual abuse.  

• Applicants who were tortured by government officials would be denied Convention Against Torture (CAT) protections unless the officials were acting “under color of law.” 

• Immigration judges would be allowed to deny asylum applications without a court hearing. Without a hearing, applicants disadvantaged by language and literacy challenges as well as the effects of trauma will face nearly insurmountable obstacles.

Comment portals from CLINIC & The Immigration Justice Campaign are available to help you submit a comment on the proposed asylum rule in 5 minutes or less. If you want to learn more, have time to submit a longer comment, and/or have the capacity to engage others, Tahirih Justice Center has compiled additional partner resources including social media toolkits, template comments, webinars and sample organizational statements. 

Thank you for your continued partnership!

Madison Allen (CLASP)
Connie Choi & Jenny Rejeske (NILC)

Visit us at https://protectingimmigrantfamilies.org/