Dozens of advocacy groups, many led by young immigrants to the United States, are springing up to put pressure on Congress to change America’s citizenship laws.
With both the White House and Republicans doing all they can to court increasingly powerful Hispanic voters, the new activists are adding bold and confrontational tactics to the strategies older nonprofits have tried for decades as they seek to help the nation’s 11 million undocumented workers.
The infusion of more activist groups and the changed political environment means “it’s a whole new ballgame for us,” says Clarissa Martínez-De-Castro, director of immigration and civic engagement at the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest advocacy group for Hispanics and a leader among veteran groups that have long worked to help immigrants.
Moving Fast
But Ms. Martinez-De-Castro and other nonprofit leaders worry that foundations and big donors who have been generous in the past won’t move fast enough to provide them the resources needed for amped-up advocacy efforts to influence a Congressional vote that could come as soon as this summer.
Frank Sharry, who has been working on immigration issues for 25 years, notes, “This moment happened very quickly. Foundations haven’t had time to move yet.”
Mr. Sharry’s group, America’s Voice, received considerable support from the Ford Foundation and other grant makers last year.
But he says that hasn’t been the case for other groups that, like his, were founded after Congress failed to pass an immigration law in 2007 and activists and grant makers alike sought new approaches.
Promising Grants
While grant makers acknowledge that the money pipeline hasn’t exactly been gushing, they say they will be making more grants to gird the citizenship movement.
“Historically, we have ensured that our grantees are ready to take on opportunities as they present themselves,” says Mayra Peters-Quintero, a senior program officer at Ford. “Although our focus has always been on the long haul, we’ll be sure these groups have the resources they need.”
“We’re moving as fast as we can to get the money out the door,” says Archana Sahgal, program officer at the Open Society Foundations. “We’ll be increasing our support for a number of new groups.”
Seeking More Money
Such determination aside, some foundations express surprise that more of their peers aren’t contributing to the cause, especially as new immigration groups have emerged.
When the White House announced a plan in June to stop the deportation of undocumented young people who grew up in the United States, “we thought more foundations would have stepped up,” says Geri Mannion, director of the U.S. Democracy Program at the Carnegie Corporation of New York. But it hasn’t proved to be a watershed event.
“I do worry about where the money is coming from,” says Ms. Mannion. “If we do get a chance at some kind of legalization for immigrants, the same foundations that have helped those groups grow will be looked upon to help with implementation.”
“It would be great to have new sources of funding,” she says.
Joining Forces
Foundations are doing their part to help groups, including several newer ones, gain strength through collaboration, says Mr. Sharry.
Among the new efforts: the Alliance for Citizenship, which several advocacy nonprofits created in February to gather organizing and fundraising strength.
The alliance, which comprises seven organizations, has received grants of more than $1-million each from the Atlantic Philanthropies and the Open Society Foundations.
“We’re hoping that by coordinating our advocacy efforts, we can do better than we did in 2007,” says Kica Matos, director of the immigrant rights and racial-justice program at the Center for Community Change, a member of the alliance.
The alliance will rely on America’s Voice and its list of one million activists to seek advocates for change.
In addition to tapping its reservoir of advocates, America’s Voice will focus on reaching activists via Spanish-language media and by courting young immigrants.
This year’s fight is different from the one in 2007, says Mr. Sharry, who previously headed the National Immigration Forum.
“The movement then was seen as one led by politicians in Washington. Now it is an outside-in, bottom-up movement because immigrants themselves are more vocal.”
‘Dreamers’ in Action
Undocumented young people—individuals who came to the United States before turning 16 and who now are up to 35 years old—are driving some of the most aggressive nonprofit efforts to change immigration laws.
Most of these groups formed in the last five years and are getting by on annual budgets of under $1-million, having struggled to gain the support of grant makers.
Despite their meager dollars, groups like United We Dream and the National Immigrant Youth Alliance have made themselves a force in the immigration debate, organizing sit-ins at Congressional offices, “outing” themselves as illegal immigrants by telling people during demonstrations, and rallying at immigration detention centers.
Within the past year, those actions have earned the groups more members and media attention and, they say, won the empathy of many Americans.
Taking part in advocacy work has also emboldened undocumented immigrants who have spent much time living in the shadows for fear of arrest and deportation, says Daniel Rodriguez, 26, founder of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, an advocacy group in Phoenix.
“We put our stories and immigration status out there for people to see,” says Mr. Rodriguez, an adviser to United We Dream. “That gave us a lot of courage. It changed the psychology of our people.”
Stuck in the Middle
As some organizations seek to mobilize young people, the National Immigration Forum, a 31-year-old group, has made an effort to draw some new allies into the fight to revamp citizenship laws.
But it has had little luck so far raising money for a campaign it began developing in 2011, called “Badges, Bibles, and Business.”
At a time when many conservative and religious groups, such as Focus on the Family, no longer oppose immigration overhaul, the campaign to persuade police officers, religious leaders, and business executives to push for change would seem well timed.
“We believed we were in a strong position to make an argument to people in those regions,” says Ali Noorani, the group’s executive director. “We knew that in order to win we had to do something different.”
But for all the program’s timeliness and attempts to bridge ideological gaps, its new strategy has yet to find new sources of money, and its usual supporters aren’t offering as much as the group had hoped.
“It’s been very difficult. We’re caught between what I call the wall on the left and the rock on the right,” Mr. Noorani says. “Some foundations seem to be leery of our approach and want to see whether it will work or not.”
A Citizenship Campaign
Some foundations are already looking ahead to what will happen after Congress takes action on immigration.
Last year, several grant makers, led by Carnegie, pledged $20-million to help pay for application fees and legal advice on how to navigate the immigration system for the eight million legal immigrants who are eligible for citizenship.
Only one in 12 of them become naturalized each year because of a lack of money, language barriers, or other impediments.
“We’re trying to figure out a way to grow a field that makes the integration of immigrants run a little smoother,” says Ms. Mannion, of Carnegie, “which will become all the more important if there is comprehensive reform.”
Helping the Opposition
Yet other foundations are expected to continue bankrolling the opposition to changing immigration laws.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (commonly called FAIR) and Numbers USA, which advocate for tightening immigration restrictions and border controls, have in recent years been supported by such grant makers as the Scaife Family Foundation and the Weeden Foundation.
“It’s no secret we’ve opposed amnesty before and we’ll do it again,” says Ira Mehlman, spokesman for FAIR, which says it has more than 250,000 members nationwide. “There’s nothing in any of this legislation that does any good for the American public.”
Groups advocating for a path to citizenship “are ignoring that immigration is often way down on Hispanics’ list of priorities,” Mr. Mehlman adds. “This has more to do with building up their advocacy movement.”
He declined to say whether his group has received new foundation grants for advocacy work to oppose the groups pushing Congress to vote in the new few months.
While advocates for changes in immigration laws are intensely focused on a legislative victory in Congress, some are already cheering their own successes.
Getting the American people focused on the needs of immigrants is a very positive first step, they say.
“Even if it doesn’t pass this year, we’ll be stronger as a field,” says Marielena Hincapií, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. “We’ll target some smaller victories for now, and the fight will go on.”
