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An overview of the Trump Administration immigration legacy.
GCIR President Marissa Tirona speaks with Kris Hayashi, Executive Director of Transgender Law Center, the largest trans-led organization in the country.
Emerging leader scholarship receipeint, Joél Junior Morales, reflects on his experience at GCIR's 2022 convening in Houston.
In this edition, GCIR President Marissa Tirona speaks with Arcenio Lopez, Executive Director of Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP). Read on as Arcenio shares his thoughts about building power for Indigenous immigrants, the importance of forging alliances with other Indigenous communities, and how philanthropy can support and strengthen the work of Indigenous migrants.
In this edition, GCIR President Marissa Tirona speaks with Magaly Urdiales, Co-executive Director of the Western North Carolina Workers' Center. Read on as Magaly shares her insights on organizing workers in her region, the innovative strategies they use to identify campaign issues and effect the changes workers want to see, and the important role philanthropy can play in building immigrant worker power and leadership in rural areas.
Today, the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). While the decision was made on procedural grounds and not on the merits of the program, it nevertheless provides a reprieve for 650,000 immigrants and their families, including more than 250,000 U.S.-citizen children.
Outside the U.S. Capitol, it was an unexpectedly beautiful winter day in D.C. - 60 degrees of sunshine with a breeze. Inside, we walked alongside energized groups navigating the buildings on their own missions. As part of the Foundations on the Hill delegation, Kevin Douglas, Senior Director of National Programs at Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR), guided a group of six of us in and out of the long halls and winding tunnels. In my excitement at being in the People’s House for the first time, where power could lead to transformation or repression, I thought back to the years of the Trump Administration’s inhumane immigration policies.
In this edition, GCIR President Marissa Tirona speaks with Katherine Perez, Director of the Coelho Center for Disability Law, Policy, and Innovation at Loyola Law School. Read on as Katherine shares her thoughts about building power for immigrants with disabilities, working at the intersection of movements, and how philanthropy can support and strengthen the work of immigrants with disabilities.
GCIR President Marissa Tirona speaks with Lian Cheun, Executive Director of Khmer Girls in Action (KGA) in Long Beach, California, an organization working for gender, racial, and economic justice through community and power building efforts led by Southeast Asian young women.
In this edition of Amplify, GCIR President Marissa Tirona speaks with Mily Treviño-Sauceda, Executive Director of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas. Read on as Mily shares how the work of farmworker women intersects with fights for migrant, gender, worker, and climate justice, and how philanthropy can support the leadership of women farmworkers. A note to readers: This interview mentions sensitive topics that may be triggering, including sexual harassment and other violence against women. Please take care while reading this article.
2020 has been a year unlike any other in our lifetimes. The fourth consecutive year of escalating policy attacks on immigrants and many other marginalized communities.
As an organization dedicated to advancing justice and equity for all, we at GCIR are appalled at the insurrection, violence, and rioting we witnessed earlier this week, which were direct consequences of the divisive rhetoric and oppressive policies promulgated by Trump and his enablers over the past four years.
I often find myself going back to Davis’ words, especially on days when progress feels so excruciatingly slow and hopelessness begins to set in. Lately this has come in the form of news headlines of another school shooting and continued disappointment with elected officials for not delivering on their promises. Yet Angela Davis’ quote not only reminds me that the fight toward a liberated world takes time, but also that, even on the most difficult days, you must be as bold and far reaching as possible. After all, there is a role for everyone, including those of us in philanthropy, in the long-term fight for equity and justice. Given the considerable influence and power of philanthropy – a $90 billion sector – funders are well-positioned to play a key role in its radical transformation.
As a native-born U.S. citizen working in the movement for immigrant justice, I often reflect on what brought me to this work out of the many social justice issues that demand our attention. Navigating the immigration system alongside my wife who immigrated from Albania to pursue her dreams of a better future opened my eyes to the complex and often challenging immigrant experience in America.
When I began writing this blog post, I was asked “what do you want readers to take away from it?” Immediately I knew my answer: Undocumented people have the right to be in positions of power, to be compensated fairly for their labor, and to be valued for the expertise they bring to the table. Undocumented people deserve much more than we’ve given them.
In 2021, GCIR launched a process to develop a new strategy which reflects our evolution as a national philanthropic mobilizing organization that creates strategic opportunities to move money and power to immigrant and refugee communities. To that end, we asked the Luminare Group to design and facilitate a strategy development process that was inclusive, generative, and collaborative. It was important to us that we did not create this new framework in a vacuum, so we convened a dynamic group of movement leaders, funders, and experts whose perspectives are informed by varied experiences and roles within the social justice ecosystem.
As I reflect on what brings me to this work, I am reminded that these roots run deep. As a Puerto Rican brought up in the United States, I was raised with an awareness of our nation’s history of colonialism and at times violent intervention in Latin America and beyond. I saw how the U.S. government had fought to ensure that the political and economic arrangements in Latin American countries suited its own interests, while then abdicating responsibility for the resulting destabilization.
What do we hope to accomplish? What will success look like? What will it take to get there? These are some of the questions I grapple with as GCIR’s Programs Learning Manager. My position is new, reflecting the organization’s commitment to proactive learning throughout our work. In a nutshell, I aim to support the team in building evaluative capacity, including through the design (and constant iteration) of ways of working that make it easy for people to engage meaningfully in learning processes.
Americans are eligible for up to $1,200 in coronavirus stimulus money — unless they're married and filing taxes jointly with an immigrant who doesn’t have a Social Security number. Democratic leaders are demanding to change that.