Facing Challenges & Pushing Forward Together

Dear Allies,

It’s been nearly a week since we all witnessed a coordinated attack on the United States Capitol Building by far-right domestic terrorists that attempted to undermine our democratic values and processes. We are thinking especially of our DC-based partners and allies who may have been personally affected by Wednesday’s insurrection. Although the events at the Capitol dominated the news cycle, there was another major news event. Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeated their Republican rivals in the two Georgia Senate races. With their wins secured, the Democrats now have a razor-thin majority in Congress.

Last week stands as a solemn and stark reminder that our work doesn’t end on January 20th. We will continue to face every challenge as a united and diverse coalition, and we are grateful to have you as our partners.

This week, we are sharing an update on our sign-on letter plus a corresponding communications toolkit, and a new brief on benefits application equity from CLASP and the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty. 

Nearly a month after we first launched our sign-on letter to the Biden Administration urging an immediate reversal of Trump-era public charge regulations, the PIF coalition is delighted to announce that we were joined by 500 organizations from all 50 states, as well as Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands. We are constantly amazed by the strength and engagement of our partners, and we thank you all for joining us. You can read the letter and find the complete list of signatories, and read our press release.

We’ve also prepared a toolkit to support your advocacy work as the Biden Administration takes office and the new Congress gets back down to business. Building on the sign-on letter, the toolkit focuses on public charge reversal and an immigrant-inclusive pandemic response. It includes:

• Messages – For use in any policymaker or media communication

• Pitches – For use with an immigration reporter or a health reporter

• Op-Ed – With lots of room for a family or provider anecdote

• LTE – Pegged to a stimulus payments story

• Tweets – About the letter, the imperative for action on public charge, and the need for immigrant-inclusive pandemic relief

Medicaid and income support programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and cash assistance, are proven to increase health and economic opportunity for families and communities overall. However, many people who qualify confront barriers to these supports. In New Mexico, families that include immigrants have been historically under-enrolled due to state agency policies and practices that prevent them from accessing these critical supports. Late last month, CLASP and the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty published a brief, Practical Changes State Agencies Can Make to Increase Equity in Application Processes for Immigrant Families. The brief provides an overview of actions that NM state agencies can take to promote equitable application practices for immigrants applying for benefits, building upon the years of work that NM Center on Law and Poverty and partners did or are advancing in New Mexico to support equitable access to food and medical assistance for people who are immigrants. 

• Pediatrics – Docs and public health experts compare family separation and other anti-immigrant child policies with torture, in part because the suffering is imposed by the state, citing public charge as an example of the government’s systemic use of suffering as a tool to deter immigration.
  The Guardian – On the devastating toll of COVID-19 on health care workers of color, including immigrant health care providers.

• Dallas Morning News – Great editorial dings Congress for denying stimulus checks to US citizen children in mixed-status families.

• WKXW Radio – Part of a PR push by Make the Road New Jersey to let folks in immigrant families know they may qualify for stimulus payments under the year-end pandemic relief law.

In Solidarity,

Eddie Carmona & Renato Rocha, on behalf of the PIF Team

Visit us at https://protectingimmigrantfamilies.org/