Advocacy

December 5, 2020

African Communities Together was quoted in Rep. Grace Meng’s press release announcing the letter she sent to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention objecting to the requirement that states collect and share personal identification information of COVID-19 vaccine recipients.  See the press release here.

December 18, 2020

African Communities Together joined the No Muslim Ban Ever campaign, the Value Our Families campaign and several national, state and local organizations, in sending a letter to President-Elect Joe Biden to thank him for his commitment to rescind every iteration of the Muslim Ban, including the African Ban, on Day One and to urge him to expeditiously rescind related bans and Executive Orders.  See the letter here.

December 28, 2020

Yesterday, the President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 which contained an extension of the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness program.  Following several months of advocacy, this is yet another victory for the Liberian community. Eligible Liberians now have an additional year to file for their green cards.  The new deadline is now December 20, 2021.  See our press release here.

January 14, 2021

African Communities Together joined over 40 organizations in urging the Biden-Harris Administration to take immediate action to halt the Trump Administration’s denaturalization apparatus.  In 2017 and 2018, the Trump Administration filed double the average number of denaturalization cases filed in the prior 12 years with apparent targeting of people of color and Muslims. See the letter here.

January 14, 2021

African Communities Together recently contributed to the National Immigrant Justice Center and 

American Immigration Council FY2022 budget priorities document that was submitted to the Biden-Harris transition today.  The document, entitled Principles for a Values-Based Budget for Immigrant Justice, includes as a priority the funding of a White House Task Force on Black Immigrants.  See the full document here.

Recently, the State Department announced a change to the Diversity Visa (DV) online application that would require applicants to provide their current passport information.  In the past, someone who wanted to register for DV didn't need a passport until he/she was selected to actually apply for the visa (only 100,000 out of the roughly 14 million applicants are selected to apply for a diversity visa.) This allowed applicants to avoid the expense and log

At a Bronx townhall meeting about Ebola, Africans shared their experiences of being wrongfully targeted or harassed due to Ebola stigma. Civic leaders, including Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., condemned anti-African discrimination.

NY1 tells the story of Fanta Toure, a certified nursing assistant who states that she was kept out of work at a Queens hospital because she recently traveled to Guinea- even though she wasn't exposed to Ebola and had no symptoms.

African Communities Together members had a great time at the African Day Parade and Festival, marching, dancing, and spreading the word about ACT's services and campaigns to the other participants.

Take a look at the photos from our contingent on Facebook.

If you took photos of ACT at the Parade, please send them to us and we will share them.

And if you want to be on the invitation list for future events like this, make sure to sign up below to get updates!

Ask immigrants why we came to America, and you will hear millions of different stories. But our many stories usually boil down to just a few shared reasons.