Trump's public charge rules will only exacerbate the coronavirus health crisis

Last week, we joined New York State Attorney General Letitia James arguing (via videostream) before a federal district court judge in three related lawsuits challenging several Trump administration public charge rules, seeking to stop enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Public charge rules penalize immigrants who access certain public benefits or are deemed at risk of someday needing public benefits, and primarily affect low-income immigrants of color. The rules are particularly harmful during the current public health crisis, as they cause families to forgo much-needed healthcare, food, and housing assistance. Among the issues argued was an emergency motion to block the rule from remaining in effect during the pandemic.

“As the country faces a public health crisis, allowing these racist wealth tests to continue to be imposed on our immigration system can cause catastrophic harm to our loved ones and neighbors. We urge the court to put a stop to these unlawful and inhumane policy changes,” said Javier H. Valdés, Co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York.  

Learn more on our website.

Join us for Justice Beats! A virtual music festival and fundraiser for communities in urgent need

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On Saturday, May 30, 2020, from 1–7 p.m. EDT, we’re joining Adalah Justice Project, Donkeysaddle Projects, and Eagle Project to sponsor Justice Beats, a virtual music festival to benefit communities in need. Hosted by the Peace Poets, Justice Beats will feature various DJs, musicians, and other artists from directly impacted communities and raise money to benefit undocumented immigrants, Palestinians, incarcerated people, Indigenous communities, and houseless people. 

All proceeds will benefit grassroots organizations and projects on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis, including American Indian Community House, Red de Pueblos Transnacionales, Cosecha (Juarez/El Paso circle), BLMP (Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Program), Tent Mission STL, SONG (Southerners on New Ground), Health for Palestine, and Palestine Grassroots Distribution Project. 

For a full schedule, DJ line up, performers, and more, head to the Justice Beats’s website.

In the blog: Following the leadership of disability justice & fat liberation organizers--in the COVID-19 moment and beyond

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The latest piece in our blog is the third in a series of posts about the movement response to COVID-19. Advocacy Associate maya finoh speaks to the importance of acknowledging how disability justice and fat liberation organizers’ hard-fought wins have laid the foundation for many of the accommodations that allow us to continue to function during this pandemic. They also underscore the urgency in centering disabled and fat communities — who, through medical discrimination and supply rationing, stand to be most impacted by the public health crisis — in our collective liberation. finoh urges us to uplift these communities as the torchbearers of the path ahead, containment of the pandemic, and the world that will take form in its wake. They write:

"Now that non-disabled people and corporations require reasonable workplace accommodations in order to continue to function under COVID-19, our culture is beginning to universalize the victories of the disability justice and fat liberation movement. In New York City especially, we are seeing dramatic changes in how we work and move in the world, in addition to greater clarity around why certain communities are viewed as expendable during this public health crisis. Fat liberation and disability justice organizers have long articulated the injustices of our current sociopolitical environment, where they are uniquely vulnerable, and demanded the very work policies that are now becoming commonplace."

Read the blog post in its entirety on our blog.