Immigration raids, harassment, the loss of critical environmental and legal aid funding — these are among the many challenges facing Latino-led nonprofits as the Trump administration rolls out new policies affecting the communities they serve, Hispanic Federation President Frankie Miranda said.
In this moment, Hispanic Americans are being conflated with people living in the country without proper documentation, and that has had a chilling effect on these groups, according to Miranda. The Trump administration’s mass deportation policies are “blanketing all Latinos as potential invaders and potential criminals,” Miranda said. Moreover, even Latino organizations focused on issues outside of immigration have had their operations hampered by federal funding delays that began with the now-rescinded federal funding freeze from January, he said.
The Hispanic Federation, which has delivered roughly $125 million to more than 650 nonprofits since 1990, finds itself among the groups waiting to receive previously obligated federal grants. The federation expected more than $105 million in federal funding over the next five years, including $58 million to support health centers in Puerto Rico and $16.1 million to provide digital access, skills training, and work-force development in 17 states, he said. The federation also had been awarded $250,000 for civil rights education and legal assistance programs for immigrant families in rural North Carolina. That money is no longer being delivered. Every week, Hispanic Federation staff are spending time contacting agencies to try and confirm which programs are moving forward, Miranda said.
“Every day that we cannot act on a program costs us roughly $6,000 because of staffing and other obligations needed to act on the contract,” Miranda said.
Miranda has headed the Hispanic Federation since 2019 and has worked at the organization for more than 20 years. He helped launch the group’s disaster relief and resiliency projects in Puerto Rico and the Advance Change Together initiative to support LGBTQ communities, among other projects. The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently spoke with him about how the federation is advocating for Latino nonprofits and helping them prepare for an uncertain future.
How are you preparing for the possibility that the Hispanic Federation will not receive the $105 million in federal money that it expected?
We are doing scenario planning constantly, depending on what the conversation is that week with an agency. As an organization, our funding is very diversified, and we’re going to be able to weather this. We’re more concerned about our members. We have 780 nonprofit members and partners across the country, and what we’re trying to do is to continue making sure that they receive the capacity-building support and information they need to be better prepared, and that they understand the risk they’re facing. There is a lot of uncertainty on how the private sector is going to react to many of these policies from the White House. Normally when government retrenches, institutional philanthropy and the private sector step in in a more decisive way to compensate for the gap. We’re focusing on having really intense and intentional conversations with all our partners, trying to ensure that they understand what is at stake and what is the importance of continuing to working with us to serve the community.
How are you helping your members navigate this political environment?
Mass deportation is not the only issue concerning Latinos, but that’s one of the biggest things that these organizations have to encounter. We have provided training on “Know Your Rights.” If ICE shows up to their facilities, these groups need to know how to help their clients be better prepared and better informed and provide messaging about the increase in hate crimes against our community. People have been attacked and labeled as not belonging here simply because they are speaking Spanish in public areas — even Puerto Ricans, who automatically receive U.S. citizenship. People are concerned about walking around without their passports.
Many of the people that we serve, we don’t ask whether or not they are an American citizen. The important thing is that these organizations help individuals that need or prefer services provided in their native language and with an understanding of their cultural background. Now these organizations feel that they are exposed. There has been an effort to pass legislation, federal legislation, that could easily remove the nonprofit status of many organizations if there are allegations that they support foreign terrorists, which is really concerning for our organizations. They worry they could become a target of this administration.
What else are you hearing from groups on the ground?
A lot of people have reached out to us to do hotlines and provide referrals for legal assistance. We cannot do this right now. Our organizations are bursting with people that are desperate to receive these services, and the funding has been taken away. We saw it with many of the “Know Your Rights” town halls that we hosted. People show up because we have the experts and want to discuss their cases. And we say, “Do not disclose any private information here in public, right?” But they’re so desperate. They’re telling you, “I am here. My status is the following. I am afraid. Can anybody from the panel can give me advice?” And the fact is that it’s impossible to provide legal advice in that forum. There are agencies that provide services to the migrant community, regardless of if they are here with legal documents or without documents. We’re seeing incredible demand for these services at the same time that these agencies are losing funding,
How else are you advocating?
We joined the ACLU, the League of Women Voters, the NAACP, and Latino Justice Project to file a lawsuit against the federal government on the executive order that would require people — when they register to vote — to present proof of citizenship. This executive order would create an additional burden for organizations like ours to register people to vote from low income backgrounds and young people — people who would not typically carry a passport. About half of the population does not have a passport.
You also recently hosted a gathering for your members in Washington, D.C. Why?
One of the big purposes of our encuentro, or national meet-up, was to talk to elected officials and tell them the real story of what’s happening and how these administrative actions have destabilized, or are trying to destabilize, the nonprofit sector, especially the Latino nonprofit sector. There are so many other headlines, we wanted to bring back the attention to these essential service providers, the work they are doing and how the communities of each of these elected officials are going to be affected due to the lack or suspension of services.
It’s only been 10 weeks. It feels that has been 10 months because of the amount of triaging and the amount of re-directing and reassessing we’ve had to do. So that is part of the conversation that we wanted to bring to the attention of lawmakers. While we try to figure out what is going to be the future of the sector, we decided that we needed to go to Washington, D.C., raise our voices and reclaim our narrative.
This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.
