Immigrant Rights Action is a Doylestown-based, 100% volunteer neighborhood collective documenting local ICE activity & offering immediate support to community members threatened with deportation. Since our founding in March 2017 we have made over 50 attorney referrals and been able to help financially in 23 cases, providing over $13,500 in support from our crowd-sourced legal defense fund. In addition to ensuring rapid access to high-quality legal representation, we offer accompaniment to ICE supervision check-ins, legal consultations, and court appearances.

We hold monthly, well-attended, bilingual English-Spanish meetings in Doylestown and are proud organizational members of the Pennsylvania Immigration & Citizenship Coalition, which we formally joined in October 2017. Five of our volunteers so far have completed PICC's Community Navigator Training. In June 2018 we were awarded a competitive PA is Ready! grant to offer a series of Know Your Rights/Deportation Defense workshops and legal immigration clinics throughout Bucks County in conjunction with HIAS-PA and Welcoming the Stranger.

The Trump Administration has worked hard to instill fear in our immigrant communities by eliminating programs and policies that keep families together and by spreading misinformation about immigrants and refugees. A clear example of this was the administration's announcement ending DACA in September 2017. However, over and over again, immigrant communities and advocates have successfully pushed back against his racist policies and won. Just this month, yet another court ruled that the administration's efforts to end DACA were unlawful. The administration has already asked teh Supreme Court to review the lower court decisions. For a full review of the DACA litigation, read the summary from NILC.

While the litigation moves forward, current DACA recipients are still able to renew their DACA permits. If you have DACA now or have had DACA in the past, USCIS is will accept renewal applications. However, initial DACA applications will not be accepted. Additionally, USCIS is not accepting applications for advance parole from DACA recipients. Read more about DACA renewals. If you want to renew your DACA, we strongly recommend seeking the advice of a trusted legal advisor.

Join organizers, policy leaders, service providers, and many others at the National Immigrant Integration Conference (NIIC) "New American Dreams - From Resistance to Victory" to build power for and with immigrant and refugee communities in this critical moment. Now in its 11th year, the NIIC is the largest conference on immigration and immigrant integration in the U.S. At the NIIC, community members and leaders from many different areas of the immigrant rights movement gather to develop relationships, build campaigns, amplify shared values, be inspired, build relationships, and share ideas. It is an important space for leaders and organizations, and strengthens collaborations and partnerships that power work at the local, regional and national level. Participants will be able to attend sessions along tracks such as: America as Refuge; Fighting Hate, Fighting for Racial Justice and Equity; and Full Citizenship for All. NIIC 2018 will also uplift the important lessons from the 2018 elections and the victories in purple states like VA, and address up-to-the-minute policy issues impacting immigrant and refugee communities across the country. NIIC will take place from Sunday, December 9th to Tuesday, December 11th in Arlington, VA. Register now!

PICC is excited to announce that we will be sending 22 of our talented and committed immigrant leaders and allies to this year's NIIC. We are still fundraising to cover their registration fees, housing and travel costs. You can help ensure these Pennsylvania leaders are able to attend this important conference by donating today.

We want to send out a HUGE thank you to our voter engagement volunteers! Every week, a team of dedicated volunteers attend the Philadelphia USCIS office to help newly naturalized American citizens register to vote. This year, PICC volunteers registered over 4900 new citizens before the October voter regsitration deadline.

Starting the week before the election, 60 volunteers made calls to these newly registered voters to ensure that every new citizen had the information they needed to exercise their right to vote. Through their efforts, we called over 3800 voters!

You too can join the fun! Sign up today to help register New Americans to vote, and stay tuned for future volunteer opportunities!

Norristown Diversity Day

PICC was invited to present at the Annual Diversity Day event at Norristown High School on Nov 17. This event brought together students from Norristown and Kennet Square and other nearby areas. PICC would like to extend a special thank you to Angel, Brandon, Chioke, and Christianne, leaders of the Unidad student organization (organizers of the event) for their collaboration, preparation and leadership leading role plays, Know Your Rights and Welcoming Schools Campaign presentations with students and educators. We are excited to follow student's leadership leading this campaign and for another district to enact a Welcoming Schools Policy. We will keep you posted!

Public Charge Comments Due Dec. 10th!

On October 10, 2018 the Department of Homeland Security published the official notice of its proposed change to the public charge rule. This proposed regulation would dramatically broaden the “public charge” test that has been a part of federal immigration law for decades. If the rule is ­finalized in its proposed form, this would mark a significant and harmful departure from the current policy.

Join allies across Allegheny County to write and submit comments! Join us on Monday, Dec. 3rd, 6-8pm at One Smithfield St in downtown Pittsburgh. Learn more about the issue, write your comment, and enjoy a small meal.

Check out our public charge toolkit to learn more, including a new fact sheet from Community Legal Services about how this proposed regulation change could impact Pennsylvania.

Please Donate to PICC!

PICC depends upon your support. Please donate to PICC today to support our advocacy and organizing work to mobilize the immigrant vote, build immigrant leaders, campaign for pro-immigrant policies at the local, state and federal levels, and support the effective implementation of pro-immigrant public policies.