For Immediate Release
June 7, 2022
Contact: Emily Cupples | emily@amplifiedps.com | 901-598-6161
TENNESSEE IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE RIGHTS COALITION OPEN DOORS TO NEW COMMUNITY HUB AND HEADQUARTERS
Metro Council voted to invest $1.8m+ COVID recovery dollars towards critical immigration legal services
NASHVILLE - Today, the Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County voted (in a voice vote) to advance a $1,820,585 investment between TIRRC and Tennessee Justice For Our Neighbors (TNJFON) to expand access to immigration legal services for thousands of Nashvillians. As part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP), passed by Congress last year, billions of dollars were allocated to local and state governments across the country to help in the COVID-19 pandemic recovery efforts. Today’s vote marks a historic and unprecedented investment towards immigrant and refugee communities in Davidson County.
We applaud Metro Council in joining localities across the country in strengthening our immigration legal services infrastructure by choosing to boldly support and invest in immigrant and refugee communities. With these funds, TIRRC and TNJFON will be able to scale up immigration legal services, providing quality pro-bono assistance to Davidson County residents to access immigration relief and work permits through DACA, green card applications, naturalization, asylum, and more. These opportunities are a lifeline for individuals and families - protecting people from deportation, keeping families together, and promoting economic mobility.
“Immigrants have been on the frontline of this pandemic - keeping us safe, healthy, and fed, but our communities have been largely left out of COVID recovery due to lack of immigration status. With this historic investment, we can take a small step to honor our immigrant neighbors by increasing access to high quality pro-bono immigration legal services services that will allow more people to access work permits, green cards, and US Citizenship. We know that Congress is long overdue to enact widespread immigration relief, but thanks to the investment today by Metro, we can ensure that we're doing everything we can at the local level to assist with providing critical protections that keep families together. When we organize, we win. This is a massive victory for the immigrant and refugee community.” - Lisa Sherman Nikolaus, Executive Director, Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition
“Access to an immigration attorney is scarce and unevenly distributed across the United States but it is especially scarce here. We live in an immigration legal services desert. The urgency of the current humanitarian crisis situations underscore the importance of building the legal immigration services capacity that our community has long needed.” - Tessa Lemos del Pino, Executive Director, Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors
“I come from a family of immigrants. My parents, Maria and Francisco Sepulveda, came to this country at 14 and 15 with elementary school education. Life is not equatable. In the 80s they were finally able to establish their legal status. The trajectory of their life and mine was changed by this. We have been given as a city the opportunity to invest in an equitable way our COVID-19 recovery funds. This is not only beneficial to the immigrant community. This is beneficial to all of Nashville. It's the ability to get a driver's license, open bank accounts, and report safety concerns. It’s the ability to keep mixed status families together. We cannot wait on Congress when there is action for us to take at the local level. I am proud to be a sponsor today because Nashville will be able to change the lives of people with backgrounds just like my parents. And I am proud that I was able to have a small part in it.”- Councilwoman Sandra Sepulveda
“As much as I want to thrive in Nashville, my home, and continue to work for healthcare providers, DACA remains in jeopardy. This year could be the last year DACA recipients can renew. The DACA program will be heard in the Fifth Circuit court in July with a decision expected soon after. DACA recipients like myself could face having to leave our homes and our jobs. Funding for legal services couldn't come at a more crucial time, especially for the 2,000+ Nashville DACA recipients like me who need to renew ASAP but don't have the means to do so. Having an attorney help you complete your immigration paperwork alleviates the anxiety and stress of trying to navigate complicated legal documents on your own.” - Damaris Villalva, DACA recipient and TIRRC member
BACKGROUND
For decades, Tennessee has been an immigration legal services desert - the infrastructure has not kept pace with our growing and diverse immigrant and refugee communities. This has largely been the case across the country over the last few years. The pandemic exacerbated the racial inequities and disproportionate effects towards Black and brown communities. What we also learned from the pandemic is that it takes a collective effort for all of us to succeed. Individualistic approaches in trying times will only continue to further marginalize all of our communities as a whole. This crisis is showing all of us that our health and well-being are dependent on our neighbors. We are only as safe and healthy as the most vulnerable members of our communities, and ensuring their well-being is how we ensure our own. This historic investment to our immigrant community for pandemic recovery efforts is one vital piece towards our collective effort in striving for racial and economic equity. This is a momentous initiative aimed at mitigating the pandemic’s disproportionate harm to low-income and Black and brown communities and seeding transformative policies in Davidson County.
While we continue to urge the federal government to provide permanent protections for all immigrants across the country, this major investment showcases how local governments can step up and play such a crucial role in creating communities where everyone has what they need to thrive. No matter where we come from or what we look like, we all need each other to live safe and healthy lives.
For more information, visit our policy memo.
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TIRRC is a statewide, immigrant and refugee-led collaboration whose mission is to empower immigrants and refugees throughout Tennessee to develop a unified voice, defend their rights, and create an atmosphere in which they are recognized as positive contributors to the state. Since its founding in 2001, TIRRC has worked to develop immigrant leadership, build the capacity of its immigrant-led member organizations, help immigrant community members understand and engage in the civic process, and educate the public about policies that would better promote integration of new immigrants and facilitate their full participation in US society. In just a few years TIRRC has grown from a grassroots network of community leaders into one of the most diverse and effective coalitions of its kind, a model for emerging immigrant rights organizations in the Southeast and throughout the United States.