Valley Interfaith Project (VIP) and the Arizona Interfaith Network are working with a bipartisan block of state legislators to advance proposals that would reopen pathways to college for immigrants and ensure funding for children's healthcare.

Senate Bill 1217 would reopen a pathway for immigrant college students that had previously been closed by Proposition 300.  Prop 300 prohibits colleges from charging in-state tuition to immigrants if they cannot prove legal residency.  By creating a new tuition category based on graduation from Arizona high schools, SB 1217 would allow immigrants to pay somewhere between current in-state and out-of-state tuition rates.

HB 2514 and SB 1134 would work to eliminate the cap for the Arizona CHIP program (Kids Care), which provides healthcare coverage for children from low-income families not eligible for other state services.  At this time, federal funding is scheduled to decrease by 10% in October of 2019 (and by another 10% in 2020), thus triggering a state cap on funding for KidsCare.  With over 30,000 Arizona children currently uninsured, leaders are working hard to get these bills out of committee and included in state budget negotiations.

Building on their previous month's achievement of making tenants' rights a front-and-center issue in post-Harvey recovery, The Metropolitan Organization of Houston (TMO) continues working with documented -- and undocumented -- immigrants to ensure their rights are protected.

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EPISO and allies, including the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project, celebrated the passage of a wage theft ordinance created in collaboration with city council, El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce. Mayor Leeser declared that El Paso will be "only the second city to ever" enable the city to refuse to award contracts to employers who violated wage theft laws.

Over the next 60 days, EPISO and Border Interfaith leaders will work with the city to consider amendments potentially granting additional powers to refuse to grant, or revoke, permits and licenses to wage theft violators.

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When a healthcare program for undocumented children they had created was threatened by Santa Cruz County budget cuts, COPA leaders did not stand idly by. They quickly mobilized supporters from Catholic, Jewish, Methodist and other nonprofit partners to persuade the Board of Supervisors and healthcare provides to fund the effort. And they succeeded.

United Way of Santa Cruz County recognized the organization's efforts (and its collaboration with Community Foundation and 1st 5 nonprofits) with an "Advocacy Award" for COPA leadership (pictured above).

180 mostly immigrant leaders gathered when the Metropolitan Alliance for the Common Goodput on a training session to update people on the President's executive order, increase understanding about its politics and identify new leaders to help others with applications should the temporary injunction get lifted. This is part of a larger immigrant organizing strategy for the region.