Statement on Biden’s immigration relief announcement

Statement from Lupe Rodríguez, Executive Director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, on Biden’s immigration relief announcement

We welcome and applaud the Biden administration’s decision to allow an estimated 500,000 undocumented spouses of American citizens to adjust their status in the United States and to streamline work authorization for college graduates, including DREAMers and DACA recipients. These protections are long overdue, but a step in the right direction for im/migrant communities that will offer them a pathway to citizenship and help keep families together.

We know deeply about the everyday impact immigration policies have on our communities, including the fear of deportation and family separation. And we have seen these challenges compound with the constant attacks on people’s freedom to make their own decisions about their bodies and lives. These issues are integrally connected. As an organization that is striving for reproductive justice for all, we believe that every person, regardless of im/migration status, must have the ability to decide if and when to have children AND to parent those children in safe and sustainable communities. Today’s announcement reminds us that im/migrants’ rights are part of reproductive justice, and we support efforts that will help im/migrant families thrive. Similar protections and pathways to citizenship must be expanded to include all im/migrant communities, and we will keep fighting to make this so. At the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, we’ll continue building the power needed to win protections for im/migrant communities, and raising the voices of all Latina/x people to demand and achieve health, dignity, and justice for all.