2020 election results are a rejection of Trump’s racism

Immigrant voters delivered for Biden, and now Biden must deliver for immigrant families

CHICAGO -- Immigrant leaders in Chicago are celebrating the rejection of Donald Trump, and look forward to moving the Biden administration to adopt a pro-immigrant agenda in 2021.

“ICIRR and our allies here in Illinois and throughout the country worked hard to turn out immigrant voters, but our work has only begun,” said Lawrence Benito, executive director of ICIRR. “Immigrant communities helped remove a hostile, xenophobic administration that has inflicted so much harm on immigrant families, and now we need the Biden Administration to deliver for us.”

Immigrant communities turned out to vote in large numbers in Illinois as well as in key electoral states including Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada and Georgia. Immigrant issues must now be central to the Biden Administration’s first one hundred days in office. On day one, the Biden Administration can begin to undo the harm caused by the Trump presidency through immediate executive actions and swift passage of COVID relief in Congress.

“Immigrant communities in Chicago and nationwide are ready to push a pro-immigrant agenda with the new administration and the new Congress,” Benito continued. “We’ve rejected Trump’s racism, and now we’re going to organize to make sure the next administration enacts pro-immigrant policies starting on day one.”

Through the Executive Branch, President Biden must immediately announce that he will take immigration relief actions that include:

• Extending of DACA and Temporary Protected Status and developing other avenues to protect from deportation

• Imposing a moratorium on ICE enforcement, detention, and deportations

• Rescinding the public charge rules

• Restoring refugee resettlement goals to more than 100,000 per year

• Rescinding “Remain in Mexico” and other policies and regulations regarding asylum claims and the border

• Rescinding all travel bans

As the Biden Administration and new Congress work towards a COVID relief package, we call on them to ensure all families are included in the final bill. This includes:

• Providing relief payments for all taxpaying families regardless of status

• Providing unemployment insurance for all workers regardless of status

• Providing legal status for all essential workers

• Removing barriers to healthcare access for all

As the largest immigrant rights coalition in Illinois, and as leaders in the nationwide Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), ICIRR is a national leader on immigration issues. In the coming weeks ICIRR will be working with our state coalition and nationwide partners to lay out a full pro-immigrant platform for 2021 that includes full citizenship for all 11 million undocumented residents.