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Tag: Immigration policy

Helping Those With the Least Weather the Crisis

Written by José Quiñonez on .

We are in the midst of a generation-defining crisis. The coronavirus is laying bare the interconnectedness of modern life, rapidly spreading and jeopardizing the health and well-being of millions of people around the world. No one is immune.

This unprecedented and unfolding pandemic is hitting everyone, but those with the least and the last will be hurt the most.

The coronavirus is uncovering deep inequalities in our society. People with homes to shelter, assets to protect, and relief to obtain will be impacted. But people without homes, immigrants without protections, workers without relief are going to bear the brunt of the economic crisis. Already, clients are contacting us with stories of losing jobs, wages, and incomes. They don’t know how they are going to pay rent at the end of the month.

People are feeling deep financial pain right now.

Making it harder still is the fact that many of our clients can’t or won’t get support from government programs. Millions of part-time workers, students, contractors, immigrants and self-employed may not qualify for unemployment insurance, health benefits, or even nutritional assistance. This pandemic is showing the reality that there is no meaningful safety net for the people who need it most.

Immigrant families are terrified. The federal government recently implemented a “Public Charge Rule” that sent a chilling message to immigrant families against using public services. Now, they wonder if going to the hospital would hurt their chances of becoming legal permanent residents. They are worried, “If I’m undocumented, could seeking treatment make me vulnerable to deportation?”

At MAF, we are connecting clients to community services and providing them with direct financial assistance when possible.

There is a growing awareness that in moments like these, what is most helpful is actual cash to help people pay rent, buy food and keep them from falling further behind. For some, it may be a small intervention, a referral, a small grant or a bridge loan that can keep them going. But timing is critical.

We are moving quickly to lift up MAF’s Rapid Response Fund to help low income workers, immigrant families, and students likely to be left behind, without relief from government action. We have the tools, the technology and the reach into these vulnerable communities but we need your financial support to make this a reality. 

In this moment of unprecedented national crisis, it is going to take all of us to come together, to support one another in a renewed spirit of mutuality and respect. We are in this together, and only together can we move forward as a nation.

Click here to donate.

In solidarity,

Jose Quinonez

We saw it coming.

Written by José Quiñonez on .

Ever since that dreadful day Trump descended down the escalator to announce his candidacy, we all knew deep down that it was the start of open season on immigrants. We’d seen it before. Desperate politicians using hateful dog-whistle rhetoric to dehumanize and scapegoat people of color. Never did I think that open season this time would mean a shower of bullets – indiscriminately killing human beings just because they look Mexican, including Jordan and Andre Anchondo, both parents protecting their infant child in El Paso.

Like many others, news of El Paso shook my sense of safety and belonging in America.

I suppose that was exactly the intent of yet another act of terror in a campaign against immigrants. What is clear to me is that the El Paso shooter did not act alone. The White House is also driving their own campaign that is now clear: raiding work sites just for the spectacle of it; denying visas at record rates for people looking to reunite with their families; separating families seeking asylum just to send a message of spite and indifference to their claims; and now punishing legal residents with uncertainty over their immigration status if they seek public assistance. They are doing all of this to inflict cruelty in people’s lives, to make immigrants feel insecure, not wanted or welcomed in America. We feel it too.

At MAF, we’re turning our pain into action. We are committing a $1.5 million revolving loan fund to help eligible immigrants to apply for citizenship and DACA.

[infogram id=”8a81d3c6-4732-45e2-aa5a-a989160fe941″ prefix=”L0T” format=”interactive” title=”MAF Immigration Loans”]

We’re doubling the number of zero-interest loans to help people that can’t cover the cost of applying to do so now. Over 8 million eligible immigrants can apply for US citizenship; we want to help those who can’t cover the $725 cost of applying. There is no time to waste.

Join us. Help us. Work with us. We can’t allow for America to descend any further.

With gratitude,

Jose Quinonez

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We will keep fighting

Written by José Quiñonez on .

My soul hurts to hear babies crying inconsolably for their parents, begging for help. I think about these little ones each time I look at my children, hoping that we will stop this madness and reunite them with their mothers and fathers who braved through that long and dangerous journey millions of immigrants have taken before, looking for safety in America.   

But instead of refuge, they found a government that terrorized their innocence, ripping child away from parent and violating their human and legal rights in the process. Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy harkens back to slavery, Japanese internment camps, and even Nazi Germany. And for what? This administration callously calculated that taking babies hostage would ignite a crisis to further their political agenda.

They made a terrible mistake.

Trump’s new Executive Order did not end the crisis. The administration is still following “zero tolerance” policy, keeping asylum seekers in detention camps along the US/Mexico border. And they’re doing nothing to reunite the 2,300 children in US custody with their parents. Instead they’re following their game plan, using children as bargaining chips to pressure Congress to fund Trump’s wall, cut back on visas for legal immigrants, eliminate the diversity visa program, criminalize immigrants, and block any hope for a pathway to citizenship for millions of hardworking immigrants who drive our economy, but more importantly, who call the United States home.

We are not surprised by Trump’s actions, but we are outraged and activated. From the start, this administration has attacked immigrants in rhetoric calling them rapists, criminals, thugs or animals. His actions have been aligned with this rhetoric: terminating DACA and torpedoing bipartisan efforts to provide legislative solutions to Dreamers. Step by step, he’s dismantling any hope for immigrants and people of color to be full fledged members of our society.

Clearly, he is afraid of an emerging America that is rich and diverse, colorful and complex. He’s afraid of an America that does not look like him.

But no matter how much he may fear or hate us, he can’t get rid of us. His administration is working hard to make life miserable and impossible for immigrant families. They will criminalize, they will detain, they will deport, they will terrorize, they will confiscate whatever little we may have; but they can’t get rid of us.

We are resilient. We are survivors. And we are not alone. There are millions of people that are not afraid and who will fight with us for that emerging America that is just and expansive with plenty of room, hugs and resources for those children crying at the border right now.

Hear me say this: Trump will not have the last word. He will not dictate what America is, or what it will become.

At MAF, we are doubling down. We’re helping more legal permanent residents apply for citizenship. Over the years, we have financed over 8,000 U.S. citizenship and DACA applications and are ready to do thousands more in the months and years to come. There are 8.8 million legal permanent residents eligible for citizenship right now. We want to help them naturalize, to take that first step towards being able to vote in elections to come. And we’re more determined than ever to help immigrants improve their financial lives, to help them put down roots where they live, and feel confident that they belong.

They are part and parcel of who we are as a nation and we need their dreams, their energy to keep building that emerging America.

The cries heard around the world will not go unheeded. For the children ripped from their parents arms, and the millions of people at the margins of society, we will keep fighting for freedom and dignity and respect, ever bending that arc of the moral universe MLK once mentioned – until it breaks towards justice.

With love and gratitude,

Jose Quinonez

GIVE:

Give to the legal and nonprofit organizations working to defend the rights of immigrants in the courts and provide direct support to families on the border.

  • ACLU Foundation is a nonprofit defending the civil rights of individuals. Their Immigrant Rights Project defends the rights of immigrants and is currently litigating family separation issues.
  • Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) is a nonprofit providing legal services to immigrant children, families and refugees in Central and South Texas. They are helping get parents out of detention so that they can be reunited with their children.
  • Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) is a national policy advocacy organization with offices in ten cities, including San Francisco and Washington D.C. KIND trains pro bono lawyers to represent unaccompanied immigrant children.
  • Border Angels is a San Diego-based nonprofit focused on migrant rights, immigration reform, and the prevention of immigrant deaths along the border.
  • Stand with Immigrant Families: #HeretoStay is MAF’s campaign to raise funds to support DACA, Citizenship, TPS and Green card applications to prevent families from getting torn apart by changing immigration status.

ADVOCATE:

Call your member of Congress to support families staying together. Demand that Congress hear asylum claims and reunite the 2,300 children already separated from their parents.  

  • White House public comment line: 202-456-1111
  • Department of Justice public comment line: 202-353-1555
  • U.S. Senate Switchboard: 202-224-3121

RALLY:

Take to the streets and join a Families Belong Together rally near you on June 30

ENGAGE:

Show your support on social media (#FamiliesBelongTogether #KeepFamiliesTogether).