For Immediate Release: May 16, 2019
Contact: Yoli Navas at 561-990-9029 or yoli@npstrategygroup.com

Value Our Families Responds to Trump’s Immigration Proposal

The Jared Kushner-led policy is dehumanizing, and against American ideals

Washington, DC – The following is a statement from Value Our Families in response to Trump’s speech announcing the new, Jared Kushner-led immigration proposal:

President Trump’s proposal will endanger family-based immigration and sharply curtail immigration overall. The proposed points-based system is just the administration’s latest attempt to continue separating thousands of families and targeting the most vulnerable communities. While the President continues to misrepresent family reunification, he threatens to cut back an already difficult and costly system while also attempting to strip diversity visas.

A person’s worth is not measured by their immigration status. No human should have to prove their worth; not only is such a system dehumanizing, it’s against American ideals. America needs policy that highlights our nation’s best values – not a dangerous proposal that aims to downgrade our current system and further harm families. Congress must rebuke this xenophobic policy.

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Value Our Families protects, preserves, and strengthens the family immigration system and promotes an immigration system that is informed by love, empathy, and justice.

www.valueourfamilies.org

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Legislative Agenda 2019

Count our families by ensuring robust funding for the 2020 Census, including outreach for hard to count communities, including the Asian American community.

Protect our families by preventing local law enforcement from becoming ICE agents and prohibiting private detention centers in our state.

• • • YES! On HB 1637 Keep Illinois Families Together Act (Rep. Villanueva)
    • YES! On HB 2040 Private Detention Facility Moratorium Act (Rep. Cassidy – Sen. Peters)

Value our families by preventing landlords from discriminating against renters because of their immigration status, making sure a person’s immigration status isn’t unnecessarily disclosed in court, and by ensuring that children are able to have short-term guardians if their parent is detained or deported by ICE.

• • • YES! On SB 1290 The Immigrant Tenant Protections Act (Sen. Castro – Rep. Mah)
    • YES! On SB 1429 Evidence – Immigration Status  (Sen. Villivalam – Rep. Gong-Gershowitz)
    • YES! On HB 836 Guardians-Minor:Non-US Parent (Rep. Gong-Gershowitz – Sen. Villivalam)

Invest in our families by increasing educational equity through state financial aid, creating an Asian American Family Commission, ensuring fair reimbursement rates for workers providing care in our communities.

• • • YES! On HB 3217 Asian American Family Commission (Rep. Mah – Sen. Villivalam)
    • YES! On HB 2776 and SB 2019 (Rep. Andrade – Sen. Hunter)
    • Expand investment in the Immigrant Services Line Item (ISLI) to $10 million

Members of the Pan-Asian Voter Empowerment (PAVE) coalition:
Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights & Empowerment (AFIRE), Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago, Cambodian Association of Illinois, Chinese American Service League (CASL),  Chinese Mutual Aid Association (CMAA), Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC), Hamdard Health Center, HANA Center, Indo-American Center (IAC), Japanese American Service Committee (JASC), Lao American Organization of Elgin (LAOE), Muslim Women Resource Center, Vietnamese Association of Illinois (VAI)

For more information on the 2019 PAVE Agenda, contact Justin Valas, Policy Director at Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago: jvalas@advancingjustice-chicago.org

Advancing Justice | Chicago Executive Director Andy Kang appeared on Chicago Tonight on April 24 to talk about the 2020 Census. The discussion centered around the proposed citizenship question and the how its addition to the 2020 Census will affect immigrant communities.

Watch the full segment here.