Support nonprofits that work to protect immigrants Tuesday
This coming Tuesday, Nov. 27, consider donating to an immigrant advocacy organization. To those who, like me, are new to Giving Tuesday, it is an international effort to counteract the increasing commercialism of the holidays by giving to not-for-profit institutions helping those in need.
You shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. On Giving Tuesday, you enjoy the pleasure of giving to a notfor-profit or charity.
How America addresses the immigration issue in the coming years will determine our destiny. Will we continue to grow as an economic superpower, or will restrictionist policies cripple our economy as the world’s best, brightest and most ambitious immigrants go elsewhere? As the native workforce grows older, will we find a place for the young immigrant workers who will bolster our retirement and health care programs? Will we continue to welcome the world’s tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to breathe free, as promised by the Statute of Liberty, or continue with President Trump’s punishing and inhumane efforts to demonize and exclude refugees and asylum seekers?
Hopes for comprehensive reform of our immigration laws have faded. It could be years before Congress has the cohesiveness and clarity of purpose to fix what so many agree is a broken immigration system.
Meanwhile, every day around the nation advocates fight to defend and expand the rights of immigrants. Some defend children separated from their parents at the border. Others sue the government to insure that immigrants’ rights, such as the right to apply for asylum, are not abused. Many colleges fund-raise for scholarships for undocumented students. Grass-roots organizations around the nation fight to keep local police from serving as immigration agents. And free and low-cost immigration legal service providers work to get undocumented immigrants on the path to U.S. citizenship by providing help to those seeking asylum, temporary status, green cards and naturalization.
Until our government acts to implement a smart immigration policy, these nonprofits will play a particularly meaningful role. Find who you want to support and give if you can.
Allan Wernick is an attorney and director of the City University of New York’s Citizenship Now! project. Send questions and comments to Allan Wernick, New York Daily News, 7th Fl., 4 New York Plaza, New York, N.Y., 10004 or email to questions@allanwernick.com. Follow him on Twitter @awernick.