KEEPING FAMILIES TOGETHER LAUNCH & LAWSUIT
Last week, the new Keeping Families Together process – including parole in place for certain immigrants, including spouses of U.S. citizens with ten years in the U.S. – started and people already applied and were approved. Yet Stephen Miller’s organization, America First Legal, and their attorney Gene Hamilton (co-author of Project 2025), sued the Biden administration on behalf of Texas and 15 other states and were awarded an administrative injunction. President Biden indicated he will fight back against the lawsuit, prompting America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas to say in a statement, “Programs like ‘Keeping Families Together’ are a meaningful step forward to align our public policy with our core American values. Ensuring that long-settled undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens can remain, legalize their status, and plan their futures together with their families is common sense. The Biden Administration should continue to stand up for this program and the larger values at stake …” The lawsuit utilizes the tried and true strategy of several prior anti-immigrant lawsuits: picking a venue in Texas that guarantees a Trump-appointed judge, moving the case through the ultra-conservative 5th Circuit and then up to the ultra-conservative Supreme Court, if necessary. What AV has labeled the anti-immigrant judicial pipeline. Read more here.
VANCE REFUSES TO DETAIL HIS TICKET’S SIGNATURE ISSUE – MASS DEPORTATIONS
During an interview that aired on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last weekend, GOP Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance refused to answer three separate direct questions from host Kristen Welker about the key details and targets of the Trump-Vance proposed “largest deportation operation in American history,” evading multiple prompts on whether their plan would lead to the separation of American families. Remember, their plan to purge millions of immigrants from the United States through a red state army of local police and National Guard troops is their signature issue, as evidenced by the “MASS DEPORTATION NOW” signs at last month’s Republican National Convention. Vance’s refusal to answer direct questions about mass deportation and family separation echoed that of Trump’s recent appearance in Arizona, where he admitted that immigrants in families consisting of U.S. citizens and their undocumented loved ones may be affected by their dark and expensive plan, but refused to offer other key details. “There’s a simple reason that Donald Trump and JD Vance are refusing to answer direct questions about the details and scope of their mass deportation vision,” Vanessa Cárdenas responded. “The more Americans learn about the related costs and consequences, the more unpopular the Trump/Vance agenda becomes.” Read more here.
PROJECT 2025’S DEVASTATING EFFECTS ON LATINO COMMUNITIES
In her weekly column, America’s Voice consultant Maribel Hastings writes that if you think the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 only affects undocumented people, know that no one — including U.S. citizens and authorized residents — is safe from its devastating effects. The Latino community in particular would stand to be one of the most impacted. On the issue of healthcare alone, “Project 2025 threatens Medicaid coverage for Latinos by establishing temporary or lifetime caps on the so-called ‘poor people’s health insurance.’ It also increases the cost of medications used by older Hispanic people, who currently cannot even afford them, leading them to not take medicines or to reduce their doses, severely impacting their health. Thirty percent of Medicaid beneficiaries are Hispanic.” Hastings writes that Project 2025 also impedes Latinas’ access to reproductive healthcare, threatens workers’ overtime pay and families’ food security, and eliminates critical environmental protections and reversing action to combat climate change. “Low-income Hispanics and other groups tend to live in areas with high environmental contamination, which impacts their health,” Hastings notes. “With less than 70 days to the election, one has to stay vigilant.” Her column was also published in several outlets, including La Opinión, El Diario NY, and Radio Bilingüe. Read her column in English here and Spanish here.
ESSENTIAL IMMIGRANTS, ESSENTIAL TO AMERICA: HAPPY LABOR DAY FROM AV
As our nation celebrates American workers on Monday, this holiday cannot be fully honored without highlighting the essential work of immigrants, including those without legal status, who feed us, take care of our kids and loved ones, build our homes and repair the bridges that take us to work and school, and care for us when we’re sick in addition to the billions they contribute to our economy. Nearly three-quarters of all farmworkers in the U.S. are foreign-born, and at least half of these workers lack legal status. Without their critical labor, our food supply would collapse. Immigrants are also the backbone of the construction industry, representing 2.2 million workers. The March accident that resulted in the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge was a tragic reminder of the hazards of this work. All six workers who were killed were immigrants. Immigrants are also our children’s teachers, caregivers for our loved ones, and frontline workers keeping us healthy. Among the 142,000 undocumented immigrants who work as childcare workers, personal care, and home health workers is Maria Barahona, a TPS holder and home care provider who cares for two senior citizens, including a U.S. military veteran. “These individuals have dedicated their lives to their families, their communities, and their country, and it’s my job to make sure they receive the dignified care they deserve,” she said. Immigrants are essential, and their labor should be appreciated and respected not just on this day, but all year round. Read more here.
SHOW ME YOUR FRIENDS, AND I’LL SHOW YOU WHO YOU ARE
Some GOP officials and candidates are presenting themselves as moderates. However, their party leader and friends in Congress are promoting deadly conspiracy theories and running ugly campaigns against immigrant families who contribute to this nation. As the saying goes, show me your friends, and I’ll show you who you are. Click here to call them out on their friends’ extremism.
YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS
On Tuesday, representatives from SEIU, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), People’s Action, Poder Latinx, UnidosUS Action Fund, Latino Victory Foundation, and America’s Voice launched “Defendiendo Nuestro Futuro, Latinos Against Project 2025,” a campaign to warn and mobilize Latino communities about the imminent dangers posed by Project 2025 on a range of issues. Speakers emphasized the severe harm that the plan and similar policies would inflict on the interests of the Latino community, from education, cost of living, healthcare, and the economy. Evelyn DeJesus, National President of LCLAA, President of AFT, and one of the speakers on the press call, offered an apt summary: “Project 2025 is not just a threat– it’s a direct assault on the hard-won progress of Latino workers and our communities. This goes beyond the individual policies; this playbook aims to dismantle the very systems that uplift and empower nuestra comunidad.” But as speakers noted, we can fight back. The campaign’s website, available here, includes key resources to disseminate to voters in Latino communities. The “Defendiendo Nuestro Futuro, Latinos Against Project 2025” launch was first reported on Axios and has since been featured at numerous other English and Spanish-language press outlets, including NBC News, Latin Times, and La Opinión. Read more here.
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