Federal Immigration Reform

On April 16, 2013, the Senate’s bi-partisan “Gang of Eight” introduced the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013” which lays out a plan to overhaul our nation’s current immigration system. Key provisions of the bill include a pathway to citizenship for qualified immigrants, mechanisms to tighten border security, a verification system for hiring workers, and two new guest worker programs.

Immigration reform is a critical issue for philanthropy, regardless of specific funding priorities. It holds the promise to improve health, educational, and workforce opportunities for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants across the United States—and to boost the social and economic well-being of our country as a whole.

As the debate unfolds in the months ahead, GCIR will keep funders informed of developments and their implications for a wide range of funders, including webinars and other funders’ briefings ; issue briefs and other publications highlighting potential policy implications, implementation needs and challenges, and best practices geared toward informing grantmaking strategies.

Links to Timely Resources

• GCIR's immigration reform-related resources:
  • Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013: Preliminary Analysis of Funding Needs and Implications
  • Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013: Overview for Philanthropy
• GCIR’s social media pages—Facebook and Twitter
• “Immigration Overhaul Needs Foundation Support Now More Than Ever” by Gara LaMarche
  This piece offers a perspective on the role of philanthropy in the immigration context. Gara LaMarche is a senior fellow at the Robert Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. He stepped down in 2011 as president of Atlantic Philanthropies.
• National Immigration Law Center's Senate Immigration Reform Bill webpage.
• Migration Policy Institute's Comprehensive Immigration Reform webpage.
  This webpage includes issue briefs on the 2013 Senate immigration framework, temporary workers, and legal immigration as well as other research and data on immigration reform.
• Brookings' Immigration Topic webpage.
• PewResearch Hispanic Center's Immigration Topic webpage.
• Alliance for Citizenship
• Center for American Progress' Immigration and Immigration Reform webpages.
• Immigration Policy Center's Economics of Immigration webpage.

Funder-Led Data on the Immigrant Population

As funders prepare and plan for a possible large-scale legalization program, it will be important for to begin by analyzing the demographics, service capacity, assets, and gaps in your community. Such analyses will help you build upon existing resources and determine a strategic funding focus following the implementation of a large-scale legalization program. Examples of funder-led research and analyzes on immigrants and their needs include:

• Profile of Immigrants in Napa County, by Randy Capps, Kristen McCabe, and Michael Fix, Migration Policy Institute, May 2012. This report was commissioned by Napa Valley Community Foundation. 
• A Profile of Immigrants in Arkansas, commissioned by the Winthropy Rockefeller Foundation, January 2013.
• English Language Instruction Needs of Adult Immigrants in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, funded by Silicon Valley Community Foundation, September 2011. 
• New Neighbors, New Opportunities: Immigrants and Refugees in Grand Rapids, Dyer-Ives Foundation, October 2003. 

The above list is not meant to be comprehensive, and the opinions and analyses expressed on these sites do not necessarily reflect the views of GCIR, its members, and funders.

Please bookmark this page for the latest information from GCIR, data on potential beneficiaries, and additional links to information and analyses. And feel free to contact us as you consider the impact of these important developments on your funding priorities and grantmaking strategies. 

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

U.S. immigration policy hit a milestone on June 15, 2012 when Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was announced. This policy directive, which later went into effect on August 15, 2012, could benefit an estimated 1.76 million young undocumented immigrants nationally. DACA is the first significant immigration policy development since 1986, when nearly three million undocumented immigrants were able to obtain legal status in the United States. DACA provides relief from deportation for a two-year, renewable period, and allows beneficiaries to apply for work authorization. Read more about this historic directive, and access GCIR's resources on DACA, here.