ABOUT US
The Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition brings together leading advocates for immigrants, children, education, health, anti-hunger, anti-poverty groups, and faith leaders to lay the foundation for a more inclusive future.
Our Vision: A caring society where every individual is valued for their humanity, immigrants and their families thrive and are recognized as pillars of community strength, and everyone has access to life’s essentials.
Our Purpose: To build and leverage power, ensuring immigrants and their families have equitable access to quality health care, nutrition, housing, public services and economic supports.
OUR ORIGINS
The PIF Coalition began in May 2017 with a meeting of two dozen national, state, and local organizations committed to protecting immigrants and their families’ access to health care, nutrition programs, public services and economic support. Today, the PIF Coalition has grown to more than 700 partner organizations across more than 40 states. During the 2017-2020 Trump Administration, PIF led a record-breaking public comment campaign opposing a radical expansion of public charge policy. PIF also coordinated member organizations in defending against a range of other attacks on immigrant families’ access to the health care and social services safety net.
VALUES AND APPROACH
In 2023, PIF began a consultative process aimed at articulating the values and approaches that would guide the coalition’s future work. We completed dozens of interviews, a listening session series, and engaged a member and partner design team to shape future priorities. The PIF Steering Committee adopted a new strategic direction in fall 2024.
VALUES
- Human dignity: We believe that all people have inherent beauty, dignity, and worth by virtue of our humanity alone.
- A safety net for all: We all – no matter how much money we have or where we come from – should have equitable access to support systems that enable us to meet our needs and create thriving communities.
- For the people: We believe that it is society’s responsibility and the government’s role to guarantee equitable and inclusive access to supports that ensure everyone’s ability to thrive.
- Inclusion is power: We believe in the power of the collective and that all of us are needed to win. We value the knowledge, expertise, and contributions of all our PIF member organizations and leaders. And we are intentional about building spaces that are collaborative and inclusive.
- We stand together: We are intersectional in our approach to dismantling systemic oppression, guided by a recognition of the impact of race, color, ethnicity, class, gender and gender identity, immigration status, language, sexual orientation, disability, religious identity and others, both individually and collectively, and we use that frame to make, evaluate, and advance policy and systems change with humility and empathy.
- Uniting movements: We view advocacy on support systems and advocacy on immigrant rights as interwoven and inter-dependent.
- Enough for all: We see abundance and know that everyone can be supported. We reject a scarcity model that intentionally divides communities and excludes people. We stand in solidarity with other justice movements.
- Language justice: We strive to communicate ideas and knowledge in ways we can all understand. Language justice is fundamental to our ability to build power and best meet the needs of immigrant communities.
- Strength in diversity: We center and uplift multi-racial immigrant leadership and communities and ensure they are reflected in the decision-making structures in PIF. The diversity of immigrant communities from around the world is an asset for building collective power for immigrant justice.
APPROACH
- Coalition building across issue silos and immigrant communities, creating collective strategy, and facilitating collaboration
- Advocating together for policy solutions by centering immigrant community and advocate leadership; leveraging community-engaged research; and providing analysis
- Narrative change through centering immigrant voices and experiences
- Power building among our members by supporting community-based organizations; developing community leaders; and educating advocates, service providers and immigrant families about relevant policies.
JOIN THE COALITION
PIF welcomes organizations committed to a more inclusive safety net to join the coalition. To learn more and join PIF, click here.
PIF is a coalition of organizations, but individuals who want to get involved may be able to work with or support one of our member organizations. Please contact us with any questions.
