DOE Letter to Chancellor, COVID-19

Today, the Education Collaborative addressed the following letter to the DOE Chancellor—read the full letter here.

Immigrant families are in crisis right now. Many immigrant families are struggling, having to deal with illness, loss of employment, food anxiety, housing insecurity, and the risk of not meeting basic needs.

Congress Continues to Leave Hard Hit Immigrant Communities and Small Businesses Out in the Cold

Washington, DC-Today, the House passed a $484 billion deal that failed, once again, to assist (via direct cash rebates or small business loans) to the millions of undocumented immigrants on the front lines of this pandemic and struggling to survive. The majority of the federal money will replenish the Paycheck Protection Program, which has come under criticism for allowing large chains like Ruth's Chris Steak House to gobble up federal loans.

“Politicizing the Pandemic”: Desperate to Distract from His COVID-19 Failures, Trump Announces Executive Order ‘Banning’ All Immigration

New York, NY—On Monday evening, President Trump declared on Twitter that he would temporarily halt immigration to the United States by executive order. The move seeks to give the Trump administration authority to decline all applications from foreigners to live and work in the United States for an indeterminate time, effectively shutting down the legal immigration system.

Pandemic Response Education Platform for Immigrant Families

Public education has undergone a seismic shift overnight due to the COVID-19 outbreak. We are grateful for New York City’s educators and school staff, who have risked their safety to teach youth, support families, and feed the hungry. However, on a systemic level, this unimaginable moment has underscored profound inequities in our school system and then compounded them.

New City and State Data Confirm Majority of Front Line Workers Are Immigrant NYers, Make Clear Need for Immediate Relief from NYS

New York, NY—Data from the New York City Comptroller’s office indicate that low-income immigrant New Yorkers make up more than 50% of the city’s front line workers and 33% of essential workers in New York  State.  Additionally, 90% of New York’s front line workers live in the three boroughs hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic—Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens.

New Data Reveal Immigrant NYers Serving on Front Lines Bearing Brunt of COVID-19 Pandemic

New York, NY-As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage New York, multiple reports indicate the central Queens neighborhoods of Corona, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights have emerged as the epicenter of the city’s ever-growing outbreak. Here in this seven-square-mile patch of densely packed immigrant enclaves, more than 7,000 cases have been recorded in the first weeks of the crisis.

Gov. Cuomo Abandoning Immigrant NYers on Frontlines of Pandemic in FY21 Executive Budget

Albany, NY-Today, the New York Immigration Coalition and the Vera Institute raised the alarm bell about the dire impacts cutting off funding for critical immigration legal services will have on low-income immigrant New Yorkers and NY’s fight against COVID-19. Without these resources, the thousands of immigrant New Yorkers, many of whom are serving as essential workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, will continue to be targeted by ICE and threatened with separation from their families.