CASA Virginia

Throughout its history, America has seen waves of migration from other parts of the world. Immigrants come to the US seeking a new life, but upon arrival, face many hurdles as they assimilate into the broader American society and culture. It can be challenging for them to learn new career skills, languages, citizenship, political and financial responsibilities, and a different way of life. One of the most effective strategies for addressing these challenges is organizing communities and coordinating relief efforts with other immigrants. With over one hundred-twenty-two thousand Latino, immigrant, and working-class members in forty-six states, CASA is among the most prominent immigrants right organizations in the United States.i

Based in the mid-Atlantic region, CASA consists of immigrants’ rights member committees that meet monthly to organize and campaign for various issues from communal policing to environmental quality. CASA members have fought for justice for DACA holders and other undocumented immigrants, in addition to providing vocational training, youth development, and other services. Since CASA includes members from nearly every state, some states have programs that are not available in other states, and CASA also assists with them. For example, in Virginia, they provide legal assistance in housing, employment, DACA renewal, and Temporary Protected Status, which varies depending on the country of origin.

One of the ways CASA encourages its members to participate in their communities is through volunteering. In 2016, CASA launched its Americorps program in Virginia, based in Woodbridge and Falls Church. Americorps offers volunteering opportunities with various time commitments, skills, and requirements, giving job training at an individual’s convenience while allowing them benefits and the chance to “be part of something bigger.”ii CASA also funds and coordinates Moving Forward, which provides family services, pathways to higher education, and trade certification, allowing individuals to advance and pursue their own interests.

After an immigrant has landed employment, financial independence is another step in the journey CASA can teach an individual how to budget their finances and establish a savings account, as well as how to build credit, afford naturalization fees, and finance and purchase a home. They also provide workshops on identification documents, debt analysis, and other financial services, including micro loans. For renters, CASA can provide rental insurance, dispute and crisis management, and eviction legal services.

The desire for education, whether it be for oneself or one’s children, is often the main reason immigrants come to the United States. CASA acknowledges that a better-educated community often receives more funding from the federal government. In addition, education gives one pride in themselves, a sense of accomplishment in life, and opens economic and professional doors. However, public education is often chronically underfunded, adding to the immigrant communities’ frustrations. According to CASA’s website, wearecasa.org, “[in] 2015, the federal education department released a report that showed that the funding gap between rich and poor schools grew 44 percent over a decade between 2001-2022 and 2011-2012.” CASA addresses this by advocating for students to receive funding and an equal opportunity in education.iii

An immigrant’s chances of achieving these goals are often stymied on arrival by systemic racism and inequality, with the criminal justice and healthcare systems being but two examples. Undocumented immigrants face deportation, family separation, and other issues preventing them from obtaining citizenship. Mass incarceration and police accountability are issues within the immigrant community, and CASA works with civil rights organizations and formerly incarcerated individuals to advocate for change. Another issue is healthcare. COVID-19 has been hard on the immigrant community, and in 2021 CASA launched a contact tracing program in southern Maryland and northern Virginia, which had the added benefit of providing jobs as well as lowering the infection rate.iv

“Our nation is stronger when voters head to the polls to make their voices heard,” wearecasa.org states openly. Voter registration is a major concern which applies to all Virginians, and CASA provides a voter registration form on its website. The site goes further by explaining how and where to vote once registered, and provides state-by-state information on mail-in-voting and registration deadlines. In Pennsylvania CASA circulated a petition to make sure every vote was counted as voter participation and accuracy is of utmost importance.

The legislative process is the next step after voter registration. In Fairfax and Prince William Counties, Virginia, in 2021 CASA lobbied for various community initiatives including Safe Streets, which focused on improving local transportation infrastructure such as roads and transit systems, and trust policies which built trust between immigrant communities and the local government. After the 2020 presidential election, the organization pursued a “first hundred days” campaign, holding a rally once a week every week for the first one hundred days of the new Biden administration. The goal of this campaign was to hold the new administration accountable for the promises they made to the Latinx community during the election cycle.

The Latinx movement is growing in the United States thanks to CASA and other, similar organizations. The various campaigns and initiatives they have carried out in Virginia and elsewhere have resulted in successes, with only minor setbacks. Through organizing at the community, political, legislative, and individual level, CASA has demonstrated its commitment to ensuring a brighter future for all Virginians.

i“About,” About Section, CASA website, accessed 11/20/22 https://wearecasa.org/about/.

ii“Why Serve With Americorps?” What’s at your core? Americorps website, accessed 11/20/2022 https://americorps.gov/serve

iii“Education,” Policy Section, CASA website. 11/20/22

ivCASA website, 11/21/2022 wearecasa.org.

vChristian Martinez-Lemus, CASA Advocacy Specialist, Zoom interview conducted by author, 10/21/22.

New Virginia Majority

Summary

New Virginia Majority (NVM) is a nonprofit, 501(c)(4), political advocacy organization. The group was formed by 30-year veteran organizers with Tenants and Workers United (see more below) in Alexandria, VA in 2007, and has been described as a catalyst in Virginia’s progressive movement.

NVM register, mobilize, and engage with the public in order to “get out the vote.” They organize among Latinx, African-American, Asian-American & Pacific Islander, and youth communities, so-called “new Americans,” and purposefully center the demands and leadership of working class women of color in order “to end mass incarceration, build just economic policies, protect immigrants and preserve the environment.” NVM envisions “a Virginia that centers the needs and struggles of working class people, people of color, immigrants, women, and young people to build a real democracy rooted in racial and economic justice” (About New Virginia Majority 2019; Our Campaigns 2019).

Campaigns

The organization’a platform articulates specific policy demands in the realms of economic justice, criminal justice, and environmental justice, as well as in housing, education, healthcare, strengthening voting rights, and in securing freedom from hate and fear for marginalized communities, “regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, immigration status and more.” (Our Campaigns 2019).

Organization

New Virginia Majority’s work is distributed across its various constitutive chapters, as well as semi-autonomous projects & organizations in the state. To elaborate:

Chapters:

NVM’s chapters reflect specific locales or campaign initiatives working as directly representative of the organization. For example, Richmond is the site for two NVM initiatives fighting for immigrant justice and voting rights. The former initiative fought to secure the right to drive for all Virginia residents from 2018–2020. At present, they advocate for affordable housing and improved living conditions for all Richmonders, most notably in the working-class Southwood Apartments complex, “Richmond’s largest Latino neighborhood.” This work is currently represented in the Latino Virginia project through two interviews. The first, a one-on-one with NVM organizer Elena Camacho, and the second, a roundtable featuring a number of her colleagues and individuals from Richmond’s Latinx and immigrant communities (About 2019; Richmond Immigrant Justice 2021; Moreno & Robinson, “In Richmond’s largest Latino neighborhood, people live among mold, mice, roaches. The landlord says tenants are to blame.”).

Hubs:

Where NVM consider populations as “distinct because of their histories, culture, race, nationality, geography, age or station in life,” the organization has introduced a more horizontal, diffused arrangement of power sharing in addressing those communities needs. This “hub” model allows for groups to draw on NVM as a central support and align with their partners in collaboration, while also maintaining distinct, independent organizing methods for building political power. These groups include:

• Tenants and Workers United (TWU), the regional predecessor to the statewide NVM, which organizes Latinx and immigrant communities in Northern Virginia.
• Virginia Student Power Network (VSPN), a web of students organizing at public university campuses across the state.
• Virginia Black Organizing Collaborative (VA BLOC):, Black-led organizers centered in Newport News and Hampton Roads.
• Asian Pacific Islander Civic Engagement Collaborative (ACE Collaborative): Organizing diverse Asian groups and communities, with a focus on Northern Virginia. (About 2019).

Sources

“About New Virginia Majority.” New Virginia Majority. (2019). Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://www.newvirginiamajority.org/about.

Moreno, Sabrina and Mark Robinson. “In Richmond’s largest Latino neighborhood, people live among mold, mice, roaches. The landlord says tenants are to blame.” Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA), December 30, 2021. https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/1873C072977468E8.

“Our Campaigns.” New Virginia Majority. (2019). Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://www.newvirginiamajority.org/ourwork.

“Richmond Immigrant Justice.” New Virginia Majority (2021). Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://www.newvirginiamajority.org/richmond_immigrant_justice.

Sacred Heart Center

The Sacred Heart Center is a Richmond-based nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting Latino families with the tools they need to thrive and flourish. Through education, empowerment, and community support, we create pathways for success and belonging.

What They Do

In Fiscal Year 2025, we served 9,558 community members through their core programs and initiatives:

• Adult Education: Nearly 1,000 adult learners advanced toward their goals through ESL, GED, and leadership programs, achieving a strong 79% retention rate. Twenty-two GED students passed multiple exams on their way to graduation.
• Youth Programs: 228 children and teens participated in enriching academic and leadership programs that foster confidence and community. They celebrated five high school graduates and awarded $13,000 in scholarships to College and Career Bound participants.
• Community Initiatives: Over 8,300 individuals accessed vital wraparound services, including emergency food assistance for 5,006 people, free tax preparation for 452 families, and family support services connecting more than 800 individuals to needed resources.
• Volunteer Engagement: Their mission was strengthened by 250+ volunteers and 11 volunteer groups, who contributed time and talent across all programs and events.
• Immigration Legal Services: That include special Immigrant Juvenile Status for immigrant youth who have been abused, abandoned or neglected; Asylum, for immigrants who fear persecution if they are returned to their country of origin; U-Visas, for immigrant survivors of certain serious crimes; T-Visa, for immigrant survivors of serious forms of trafficking; Adjustment of Status, for immigrants eligible to apply for Lawful Permanent Residence (a “green card”); Naturalization, for green card holders eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship;consultations; and more.

You can get involved with sacreat heart here: https://shcrichmond.org/

VACIR Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights 

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” From her island in New York harbor, the Statue of Liberty has greeted new arrivals with this phrase from poet Emma Lazarus’s poem The New Colossus since the early twentieth century. Yet, while these words have provided an attractive ideal, America has often struggled to fulfill the poem’s promise. Throughout American history, immigrants have come to this country believing in freedom and the desire for a new life, only to struggle further after arrival. Racism, scarcity of housing, education, jobs, food, and a general disinterest have long foiled immigrants’ attempts to assimilate into American society.

Virginia’s immigrants have contributed much to the economy and culture of the Commonwealth, but administrations and citizens at large have often neglected them. To meet their needs, a number of immigrant communities have organized at the grassroots level, creating nonprofit organizations united in a common cause. According to its mission statement, “The Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights is a multi-racial and multi-ethnic coalition of organizations that exists to win dignity, power, and quality of life for all immigrant and refugee communities.”

The Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights includes organizations advocating for immigrants of many nationalities, ethnicities, and religions, each located throughout the Commonwealth. VACIR coordinates, represents, and advocates for these diverse groups to the General Assembly, ensuring that barriers to immigrant progress are removed, thereby improving the quality of life for all. In 2020 the Assembly passed legislation removing barriers to state financial aid for public and private colleges and universities, granting undocumented students equal opportunity in higher education. The Assembly also improved access to housing, healthcare, legal counsel, driving privileges, and other services for immigrants.

VACIR also provides information on how individuals can receive financial assistance and, in some cases, provides that assistance directly. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven particularly devastating to immigrant communities, and VACIR has provided resources to individuals to assist in dealing with the long-term economic, healthcare, housing, and other effects of the crisis. Virginia’s immigrant community has diversified considerably in the twenty-first century, and VACIR provided translation assistance to rural areas of the Commonwealth, increasing vaccination rates and expanding access to healthcare. The Coalition’s website, virginiaimmigrantrights.org/virus, includes a handbook list of region-specific resources for affected individuals to utilize, updated social media, and a link that allows users to add to the list of resources.

The pandemic has affected immigrant communities in other ways as well. VACIR believes that COVID-19 relief should include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and that this is essential to Virginia’s economic recovery. Undocumented immigrants work in food service, construction, and the supply chain and pay millions of dollars in taxes. These individuals, VACIR argues, are contributing members of society and many of them have been in the state for years. Despite this, undocumented immigrants are left out of relief packages that would greatly benefit them and also Virginia.

Education reform is another issue of which VACIR advocates in favor. Many immigrants arrived as children or students and, until July 1st, 2020, did not qualify for in-state tuition, regardless of status. As a result, these students could not enroll in public universities and were denied equal access to education, the goal for which many of them risked their lives in migrating to Virginia. In addition to this, VACIR advocates for inclusive policies so that all students will feel welcome at school. Studies have shown that these policy changes have affected overall school performance positively.

Once an individual has achieved their educational goals, the next step towards assimilation is participation in society, and transportation is key to getting around. While many immigrants utilize public transportation, for others driving a car is more practical. But this is problematic. The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles sells personal information to private companies, the criminal justice system, and data agreements, jeopardizing the private data of all Virginians with driver’s licenses. This policy can complicate the path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and, in some cases, can lead to deportation. VACIR currently advocates the General Assembly for legislation preventing this, and HB2163 is now being voted on. If passed, this legislation will protect the private data of all Virginians.

VACIR also encouraged participation in the 2020 US Census, helping communities secure funding for the Commonwealth. Some estimates indicate this saved Virginia twenty thousand dollars per person over ten years if undocumented immigrants are not counted. The Coalition also provided advice and assistance to immigrants regarding their political questions and statistical information during the counting process.

Virginia’s future requires full participation by all citizens. The face of the “Old Dominion” has changed and now includes individuals and families from all over the world. The Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights advocates fair and equal treatment for all Virginians.