Dear Friends and Allies,

ILCM turns 25 this year! Our services help break down barriers and make meaningful improvements to immigrant families’ lives, allowing them a safe and sustainable future in Minnesota. With you, we celebrate

25 years of advocating for justice and fairness and welcome to immigrants;
25 years of helping tens of thousands of immigrants to claim safe refuge in the United States, to gain legal status, to get work authorization, to begin and grow their businesses, to reunite their families, and to become citizens of the country they and we call home;
25 years of educating the community about immigrants, immigration, and immigrant rights.

We celebrate our diverse staff and board and their commitment to our work. We celebrate you, because you are partners in this work. Our work and our continued existence are only possible in the context of this supportive community.

To help celebrate this momentous year, we’re excited to invite you to ILCM’s 25th Anniversary Gala celebration the evening of Tuesday, October 19, 2021. We’ll send additional details and a formal invitation in the coming months, but wanted to make sure you save the date!

Turning to the present moment: we continue to grieve with the victims of violence in this country and abroad. Each morning’s news brings fresh grief: the Asian women targeted and killed in Atlanta, the mass shooting in Boulder, continued killing and repression in Myanmar/Burma, unaccompanied children crowded in U.S. Border Patrol jails, asylum seekers still turned away at the border. In Minnesota, each day’s testimony in the Derek Chauvin trial brings the pain and injustice of George Floyd’s death back again. We are also devastated and outraged by the murder of Daunte Wright on April 11.

We continue to work every day for justice for all – regardless of skin color, immigration status, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, or ability. All people have a right to feel safe going about their day-to-day activities, but we know that so many do not feel safe. None of us are safe until all of us are safe. None of us are free until all of us are free. We all have so very far to go in the name of justice.

Despite the drumbeat of injustice all around, we look for hope. Snow has melted and crocuses are blooming. The House of Representatives passed the Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. If Border Patrol and Human Services facilities are filled with unaccompanied minors, that is because we are no longer turning children away. Most of all, we find hope in you, our community of support.

Thank you for your continuing presence, your work and advocacy, and your unfailing support for ILCM.

In partnership,

Public Charge

On March 9, 2021, the Biden administration announced that it would not defend the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule change. Following this announcement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would no longer defend the 2019 public charge final rule.

white sign at a march saying ''immigrants make America great''

Photo by Paul Sableman (CC by 2.0)

woman in blue shirt with brown purse holding large Venezuelan flag

Photo by wilfredor (CC by 4.0)

TPS for Venezuela

On Friday, March 8, 2021 Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas designated Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months until September 2022. Eligible individuals can apply from March 9, 2021 until September 5, 2021. We also have this fact sheet in Spanish here.