Voces Unidas Vice President of Research, Federal Policy and Leadership, Dr. Olivia García, joined a panel of policy experts at the UnidosUS Annual Conference in Las Vegas this week with the goal of advancing Latino policy on Capitol Hill.
Titled “Seizing the Moment: Advancing Latino Policy in a Divided Congress,” the panel that also included Yvanna Cancela, Chief of Staff for Congressman Steven Horsford (NV-4) and Jennifer López, State Director for Nev. Sen. Jacky Rosen, offered attendees insights on ways to advance their advocacy work by holding members of Congress accountable to community priorities.
While Voces Unidas has many examples of collaborating with Congress, our most recent success story is around immigration advocacy. In 2023, we organized two trips to D.C. hosting nearly 100 immigrant leaders who met with members of Congress and White House staff to push for immigration policy reform. Working with the national “Here to Work” campaign, last fall we marched alongside some 2,000 Latinos demanding that President Biden use existing law to grant long-term undocumented immigrants temporary protection from deportation and worker permits until we can reform federal law to provide a path to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants.
Based on our annual polling, almost 80 percent of Latino voters in Colorado support President Biden taking executive action to provide some relief to long-term immigrants. And we believe our ability to bring that kind of data along with authentic rural voices to our members of Congress and the White House made a difference. While they don’t include everything we asked for, the executive orders recently signed by the president are a great start and will help more than half-a-million people.
As Dr. García noted, our organization’s ability to develop and leverage relationships with Congressional offices has proven beneficial in pursuing policy priorities for rural Latinos in Colorado. Regardless of a divided Congress, Voces Unidas intends to continue doing its part as an advocacy organization by engaging our elected officials and helping to shape the future our community would like to see.
