Dear Friend, I’m delighted to share with you some of the critical recent victories we’ve helped secure for immigrants and their loved ones. It’s important to pause to celebrate the big wins together. Your partnership has been vital in sustaining and strengthening our efforts to defend and advance the rights and opportunities of immigrants living in the U.S. during one of the most tumultuous eras in U.S. history. I know you care about material improvements in the lives of immigrants, and you should know that, together, we’re creating positive change. - Our advocacy work to ensure that immigrants have access to COVID relief resulted in a huge victory! The $900 billion pandemic recovery stimulus package that Congress passed last December rectified a basic injustice in the earlier CARES Act, which callously excluded over 3 million people who live in mixed–immigration status families. Those families will now have access to financial stimulus payments, and some will even be able to recover support denied to them in the first round of stimulus. This is a promising start to ensuring we all are able to recover from this crisis together.
- In the week leading up to Inauguration Day, we engaged in a highly visible campaign targeting policymakers in Washington, DC, including pasting #ImmigrantsAreEssential art and posters across Capitol Hill to amplify the central role immigrants are playing in COVID recovery and in U.S. society overall. Renowned Chef José Andrés tweeted about the displays, and numerous policymakers have done the same in recent weeks. We also published a full page ad in the Washington Post calling for U.S. citizenship now for the 11 million undocumented immigrants who call this country home. Many of you likely responded as well to our call to action, to voice your support for expansive legalization.
- Our advocacy over the last four years was reflected in the Biden administration’s initial actions on immigration. As we’ve been calling for, on Day One the Biden administration announced executive orders to fortify and strengthen Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals; rescind the disgraceful Muslim, refugee, and African bans; pause deportations for 100 days; and revisit the cruel and punishing immigration enforcement priorities enacted by the prior administration, among other actions.
- Just this week, President Biden issued an order requiring federal agencies to review the Department of Homeland Security’s “public charge” wealth test and related policies. We commend the administration’s decisive moves to begin the process of reversing this harmful policy, which has sowed widespread fear and confusion in immigrant communities and prevented many families from accessing critical health care, food, and safety-net programs.
These victories are worth celebrating, and we couldn’t have done this work without you. We are truly grateful for your commitment to immigrant justice and to our shared vision of creating a country that’s inclusive and equitable for us all. Our fight isn’t over. Millions of immigrants who have not been granted legal immigration status are still being left out of COVID relief efforts. Families must still be reunited. We must continue to press the new administration to completely rescind the public charge rule and related policies that were designed to narrowly define who belongs in our country. And we need to make sure everyone, including the many immigrants who are essential workers, have equal access to vaccines and opportunities to thrive. Thank you for all you’ve done to help power us to these victories. I hope you’ll be a part of the victories still to come, to ensure a more just and equitable future for all of us. With gratitude, Marielena Hincapié
Executive Director
National Immigration Law Center |
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