The Golden Door: March 2021
Legal and Policy Issues
We are closely monitoring state and federal immigration law and policy. Please check our social media accounts for more frequent updates.
Call to Action: Contact Maine’s Senators And Urge Them To Create Pathway To Citizenship For Millions
The Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act passed the House of Representatives in March with bipartisan support! The Dream and Promise Act would establish a pathway to citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) recipients. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act would create a pathway to permanent residence for farmworkers and would change the existing H-2A temporary agricultural worker visa program.
While DACA, TPS, and DED recipients and farmworkers need relief NOW, the current bills have many bars for immigrants who have had contact with our racially biased criminal legal system. This disproportionately harms immigrants of color, which you can read more about in this letter signed by ILAP and over 270 organizations. We need pathways to citizenship without these damaging criminal bars.
Next up, the Senate! Call or email our senators today and urge them to vote for an inclusive Dream and Promise Act and Farm Workforce Modernization Act without criminal bars to status:
Senator Collins
Call: (202) 224-2523 📞
Senator King
Call: (202) 224-5344 📞
Trump-Era Public Charge Policy Is Permanently Blocked
On March 9, the Biden administration dropped its defense of Trump’s cruel and anti-immigrant public charge regulations. Federal courts dismissed the appeals, ending the policy immediately.
“Public charge” is a test to see if someone is likely to become dependent on specific government programs. The government uses this test when someone applies for a family-based green card or certain visas.
The Trump administration weaponized public charge and created a wealth test for family immigration. The rule also caused a chilling effect -- many families took themselves off life-saving programs out of fear of jeopardizing their status.
The Biden administration’s actions recognize that we must take care of everyone in our country. We now must try to recover from the previous rule’s devastating impact on our communities. It is SAFE for immigrants and their families to use health, nutrition, and housing programs they qualify for.
Check www.ilapmaine.org/public-charge and www.protectingimmigrantfamilies.org for updates.
LD 2 Becomes Law!
The Maine Legislature passed LD 2 with bipartisan support and Governor Mills recently signed it into law. This critical bill creates a process to assess racial disparities of proposed legislation through racial impact statements. A powerful tool for racial justice!
Congratulations and thank you to Representative Rachel Talbot Ross, the bill's sponsor, and a big thank you to everyone who joined ILAP in advocating for LD 2!
Temporary Protected Status for Venezuela and Burma (Myanmar)
In March, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that Venezuelan and Burmese nationals present in the United States are eligible to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS is a status given to eligible individuals from certain designated countries, usually affected by civil unrest or a natural disaster. TPS allows individuals to live and work in the United States for a set period.
The Biden administration can and must do more. ILAP signed onto a letter with over 300 organizations demanding that the Biden administration designate 18 countries for TPS. As the letter states, “Utilizing TPS to its fullest extent is a major part of upholding [President Biden’s] commitment to immigrant communities. This relief will not only benefit millions of individuals in the United States, but also their families, employers, and communities here and in their countries of origin.”
Thank You to ILAP’s Volunteers & Partners
ILAP’s work would not be possible without our dedicated volunteers and community partners! We are grateful for their flexibility and passion, especially throughout the changes and challenges of the past year.
Over the next few weeks, we will be announcing ILAP’s Volunteer and Partnership 2020 Awardees on our Facebook page. These individuals, groups, and organizations went above and beyond to support our mission. Please join us in congratulating them!
ILAP is currently seeking mental health professional volunteers and always accepts inquiries from lawyers interested in pro bono work. Check out our Volunteer and Pro Bono Panel pages to learn more. Thanks!
A Closer Look
This section of the Golden Door takes “a closer look” at immigration using an intersectional lens based on a monthly theme. Let us know what you think!
Anti-Asian Violence and Immigration
In the same month that we celebrated International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, our country mourned the one-year anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s death, a Black woman who was violently killed by a misdirected Louisville police raid while sleeping in her own bed. And we grieved the lives lost in the racist-fueled shootings in Atlanta, including Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan and Daoyou Feng, most of whom were Asian women. Read more about their lives here.
As we detailed in February’s "A Closer Look," the history of the immigration system is rooted in race-based exclusion. Violence against Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities is a symptom of white supremacy and is inextricably bound to this history. The first major U.S. law restricting immigration was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. ILAP’s Julia Brown explains that this law barred immigration from China and also prohibited Chinese people already in the U.S. from becoming naturalized citizens, among other restrictions. While this racist policy has been lifted, its effects linger, leaving Asian immigrants excluded and targeted over 100 years later.
And so, we conclude Women’s History Month with a heavy heart. Yet we find strength in the strong women* of the past, present, and future who are unifying against injustice. Like educator and ILAP Board member Priya Natarajan, ILAP stands in solidarity with everyone “who [has] suffered at the intersection of systemic racism, misogyny, and class violence.”
*We use this term to mean the most expansive and inclusive definition of the word, including trans and cis women, femmes, and anyone else who identifies as a woman.
Keep Learning:
Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine: Racism Is A Virus: A Conversation with Asian American Youth in Maine
My Tam H. Nguyen: Asian American Women Are Resilient — and We Are Not OK
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center: We are Not a Stereotype
The Washington Post: The long, ugly history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the U.S.
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