Hundreds rallied outside the Supreme Court this week, where the Trump administration demanded that justices nullify the kinds of the lower court orders that have blocked its unconstitutional and outrageous effort to terminate birthright citizenship – a protection explicitly guaranteed in the 14th Amendment – via executive order. Outside the courtroom, rally attendees held signs that affirmed the 160-year-old constitutional principle that everyone born in America is an American, plain and simple. 

“Born here? You’re a citizen, period,” “Defend the Constitution,” and “American-born children are American children” were just a number of signs seen outside the Supreme Court. We’ve collected some posts from throughout the day below.

“Hundreds are gathered at the SCOTUS because this moment matters. It is about our children’s rights. It is about their future. Ending birthright citizenship would turn back the clock on civil rights and violate our nation’s Constitutional promises.

We will not let that happen. Not today. Not ever.”

“RIGHT NOW:

A crowd of advocates has gathered outside #SCOTUS as the court hears oral arguments on #BirthrightCitizenship.”

“BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP 

IS A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT

Full stop.”

“NOW: @fwd.us is joining @casaforall.bsky.social and organizations from across the country to urge the Supreme Court to defend birthright citizenship — a Constitutional foundation — as the justices hear arguments regarding the executive order attempting to end it.”

As FWD.us noted in a policy brief, the matter at hand on Thursday was not the legality of the Trump administration’s unconstitutional executive order itself — even the administration seems to know it’ll likely lose on this issue, legal experts say – but rather whether lower courts have the power to temporarily block the unconstitutional order from going into effect nationwide. 

Should the Supreme Court rule in favor of Stephen Miller and the Trump administration and nullify the lower court rulings, it could wreak havoc across the nation. Some U.S.-born infants could be denied their rightful citizenship based entirely on the state of birth, forcing “every affected newborn to sue individually while the Executive enforces its rewrite of 150 years of settled law,” according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

“The Constitution and over a century of legal precedent are crystal clear,” FWD.us posted at Bluesky. “The Supreme Court must affirm the constitutional rights guaranteed in the 14th Amendment and not allow the Trump administration to move this unconstitutional effort forward.”

Ahead of Thursday’s rally, the great-grandson of the San Francisco-born Chinese American man whose landmark 1898 Supreme Court case helped guarantee birthright citizenship, spoke out in defense of his ancestor’s legacy. While 75-year-old Norman Wong knew that his great-grandfather had been at the center of the lawsuit that enshrined birthright citizenship, he realized he would have his own battle following Trump’s promises to undo this constitutional principle. 

“For the first time since he was born, Wong realized that what his great-grandfather, Wong Kim Ark, had once fought to gain, he might have to fight to keep,” Documented reported.

“Attacks on the constitutional rights my predecessor fought for are only meant to divide us further in our already fractured world,” Wong told Documented. “I feel privileged to be working with people who care deeply about this issue. They could have done this without me, probably, but I feel I can do my part. I believe in what I’m doing, and I think it’s right.”

We’ll know by the end of June how the Supreme Court rules. But anyone listening closely understood that the words and arguments uttered by the Solicitor General came right from the mouth of Stephen Miller, who, as NBC News recently noted, seems to be the most powerful person in the White House aside from Trump himself. “Not Vice President JD Vance. Not chief of staff Susie Wiles. Not anyone else.” And, we can’t help but wonder what Usha Vance has to say about this debate.

Amid recent town hall pushback and nationwide May Day events where immigrants and their rights have been major rallying cries, a number of immigrants targeted under the Trump administration’s nativist obsessions have won important victories that shouldn’t get lost in the daily flood of often devastating news. Blowback from angered and caring community members has played a critical role in several of these cases, highlighting the need to continue speaking out in defense of our immigrant neighbors, and each other.

VERMONT STUDENT FREED FROM ICE DETENTION

In Vermont, a university student who was detained after going to what he thought was his citizenship appointment was freed from ICE detention following an order from a federal judge. 

Mohsen Mahdawi, a 34-year-old Columbia University student and green card holder who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank, had received a notice from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for what he believed was a final test in his journey to become a full American on paper. “Instead of conducting the interview, masked immigration officials in plainclothes detained Mahdawi when he arrived,” Truthout reported. While a federal judge issued a ruling temporarily blocking officials from moving him out of Vermont, he remained unjustly detained by the Trump administration. 

In court filings demanding his release, attorneys argued that the Trump administration had been “seeking to deport Mahdawi because he helped lead pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia University’s campus in the early months of the Israel-Hamas war, in violation of his First Amendment rights,” CBS News reported. The court did the right thing and sided with Mahdawi, freeing him with some conditions after weeks in ICE detention. In his ruling, Judge Geoffrey Crawford issued a blistering critique of the administration’s actions. “This is not the first time that the nation has seen chilling action by the government intended to shut down debate,” he wrote. 

Video captured Mahdawi’s emotional release from detention. In the clip, a large crowd is singing “We Shall Overcome” as Mahdawi emerges making peace signs with his fingers. “Judge Crawford, who ruled to release me against all of the heinous accusations, horrible attacks, chills of speech, First Amendment violations — he had made a very brave decision to let me out,” Mahdawi said. “And this is what justice is. And for anybody who’s doubting justice, this is a light of hope, a hope and faith in the justice system in America.”

“To President Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you,” he continued. The fight still continues on to free other students targeted by the administration over their views, including Columbia University Palestinian activist and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil, who missed the recent birth of his first child because he’s in ICE detention.

GUATEMALAN MOM IS REUNITED WITH NEWBORN AND RELEASED FROM CUSTODY

EFE reports that community pressure and pushback from state officials helped stop the imminent deportation of a Guatemalan woman who had just given birth to her infant at a Tucson hospital after spending two days wandering the harsh Arizona desert. 

“Immediately after giving birth, the young woman learned she would be deported and was told she would have to decide between abandoning her newborn daughter or taking her with her,” El País reported. In a scene previewed in the Project 2025 agenda – which called for making hospitals, churches, and schools vulnerable to immigration raids – federal agents were posted outside the new mother’s room. “Border agents posted at Tucson maternity ward to quickly deport migrant mom,” read one headline from Arizona Daily Star. Soon after giving birth, Erika was separated from her infant, reports said. 

Luis Campos, an attorney for the mother, said that “he had not been able to speak with Erika for days and was denied access to the hospital, which he said violated her Fifth Amendment right to counsel,” CNN reported. “There was no regard for due process,” Campos said. It appeared that the new mother was on the fast-track to be deported without a court hearing and the due process she deserved. But outside, the community was rallying. 

Erika’s case “quickly garnered the attention of the local press and politicians,” El País continued, especially after Campos “reported that federal authorities were not allowing him to meet with her and that she was being ‘kidnapped.’” El País further reports that the state’s governor, Katie Hobbs, “contacted federal and local officials to inquire about her well-being and that of her baby.” Outraged community members also protested outside the hospital where Erika gave birth to her U.S. citizen child. “You know, we don’t incarcerate women two days after they’ve given birth,” said one demonstrator. “I mean, as a physician, I just know that that’s the wrong thing to do, and it’s just, it’s just wrong.”

The administration ultimately backed down and said the mom could have her day in court – and Campos credits the intense pushback from the community. 

“They shifted their position, and they did it under pressure,” he said. “That’s what we wanted from the beginning. A simple opportunity to appear before an impartial judge, an immigration judge, where she’s allowed to provide evidence to support her claim, to testify, to provide witnesses to corroborate her version of events, and to have an attorney in that proceeding.” The family is now free and Erika plans to apply for asylum.

SACKETS HARBOR COMMUNITY UNITES TO SAY NOT IN OUR NAME

Last month, we wrote about the more than 1,000 demonstrators, some carrying U.S. flags and signs reading “TOM HOMAN TOOK OUR KIDS,” who took to the streets in the border czar’s small hometown of Sackets Harbor, New York – population 1,400 – to protest his vile and shocking arrest of a local mother and her three school-age children. The mom, a local dairy worker and contributor to her local community, was reportedly swept up as part of an investigation that didn’t even involve her. Other dairy farm workers were also swept up in the indiscriminate raid. Officials then cruelly detained her three children, the youngest of whom is in elementary school. 

Numerous local, national, and independent media outlets had highlighted the swell of outrage over their detention, with local teachers, school officials, and community members taking to the streets to peacefully protest outside Homan’s Sackets Harbor home. While 90-year-old Jane Jenkins couldn’t participate in the march, she arranged to watch from the front of a friend’s home, Syracuse.com reported. “It was important for Jenkins to participate in the march to Homan’s home, even though her legs would not allow her to walk that half-mile distance, she said. Jenkins grew up in West Carthage when Homan — now a divisive figure in the nation’s immigration battle — was just a boy, she recalled.”

Homan apparently skipped town ahead of the protest, but that didn’t deter community members from gathering to stand up for this family. Just hours later, the Sackets Harbor Superintendent announced that the family would be returning home.

“Honan called it bullying; but protesters got the final word,” independent journalist Marisa Kabas wrote at The Handbasket. “The people of Sackets Harbor—and especially the school administrators and teachers—should serve as an example for us all that resistance can work.” In his piece at Bloomberg, Francis Wilkinson notes that while big law firms and schools have cowered to the administration, “a tiny school fought back and, improbably, won.” He notes that school officials and community members treated the children for what they were: one of their own. “They’re part of our family,” said teachers’ union president Jonna St. Croix. “This is about our kids.”

“The politics of cruelty have been getting a robust second wind,” Wilkinson continues. “What happened in Sackets Harbor this month was a kind of antidote to that — a demonstration of public courage and communal decency.” It’s a powerful message to the nation, and a needed reminder that if we stand up for each other, we can protect each other and be stronger as a whole.

This Mother’s Day, we honor and pay tribute to moms everywhere – including those who had the courage and strength to leave everything behind and begin new lives in the United States. 

“Although women form a majority of all immigrants in the United States, immigration hasn’t always been considered a women’s issue,” National Immigrant Justice Center has previously noted. ”However, immigrant women are profoundly impacted by our nation’s immigration system.” And, as Estrella del Paso’s “Amor al Migrante” podcast recently noted, we are profoundly impacted by these mothers. “Behind every powerful immigration story, there is often a mother—pushing forward despite fear, uncertainty, and sacrifice.” 

And as the podcast also notes, many of us are the children of immigrant mothers – and their resilience and strength has shaped our own lives as well. Watch below:

When I think of immigrant mothers, I think of Colorado mom Jeanette Vizguerra, who has spent years advocating for the right of all immigrant moms to be able to raise their families in peace but now risks losing that right herself. 

When I think of immigrant mothers, I think of Las Guerreras, a Northern California restaurant operated by an immigrant mom and daughter team. Ofelia Barajas got her start selling tamales on the street. By 2019, Barajas and her daughter, Reyna Maldonado, opened their restaurant and now employ more than a dozen people. 

And when I think about immigrant mothers, I think about my mom, who worked for many years as a housekeeper to support our family. When things feel too difficult to overcome – which can be often these days – I remind myself that I am my mother’s child.

But it’s also important to honor immigrant mothers by ensuring they have the stability they need to raise their families to their fullest potential. In her 2024 piece, Global Refuge President Krish O’Mara Vignarajah wrote that our vastly outdated and dysfunctional immigration system “disadvantages immigrant women.”

“It’s past time that lawmakers think beyond politics and polls and consider how women are impacted by harmful immigration policies,” she wrote. “Women who are victims of violence need additional ways to enter the country legally, and if they’re migrating with their children, they shouldn’t fear being separated from them. Doing what’s right means lawmakers need to expand protection pathways and center policy around the core American belief that families belong together.” 

And creating a system that respects the immigrant mothers who contribute so much to their children, and our nation. As journalist and content creator Aysha Qamar wrote in her 2020 poem:

my mother’s strength and beauty
cannot be confined to one word

on her shoulders, she carries the wisdom of
her mother and her mother and hers 

if only I could find the right words
would I bring justice to her being 

immigrant.
how many
miles
have you traveled?

warrior.
how many
battles
have you fought?

brave.
how much
burden
have you carried?

empowering.
how many
tears
have you wiped?

selfless.
how much
pain
have you hidden?

the answer is endless
because of you yourself
are the embodiment
of resilience

and when people say
I look like you
I awe at your beauty

and pray one day
I will have
even an ounce
of your strength
to carry.

This Mother’s Day, we honor and lift up immigrant moms and thank them for the many sacrifices they’ve made – and continue to make – for their families.

Immigrant rights and the essential roles that immigrant workers play in our nation and economy were major rallying cries at many of the more than 1,000 events that took place across the country as part of May Day celebrations on Thursday. In Oregon, farmworker Araceli Cortes stressed that without essential immigrant workers, “many industries would be left empty.”

“We are the farmworkers, the construction workers, the custodians, the restaurant workers, and the factory workers. All of us who, day in and day out, go to work for a better future, regardless of where we come from,” she told the Salem crowd. “As immigrants, we are the backbone of this country. Without our work, many industries would be left empty.”

Reyna Lopez, executive director of farmworker advocacy group Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, told Oregon Public Broadcast that it was important to say that immigrants belong.

“There’s been many attacks on our immigrant community,” she said. “And for us it was really important that we tell our message at this event by saying immigrant Oregonians are home, they are what makes the state beautiful and prosperous. They’re our friends, our neighbors, they’re farmworkers, they’re grocery workers, they’re people that make the state work.”

In Milwaukee, Waukesha South High School senior Alondra Arce told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she was marching because she believes immigrants belong here.

“We’re not going to stay silent, and we’re going to stay here and fight,” the student said. “This is our home and our land as well. We should all feel welcome and accepted.” It was the message needed when many long-settled community members, like warehouse worker Anely Santos, are in fear. “But Santos also was optimistic the protest movement—one of numerous marches across the country—could make an impact,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel continued. And, the protest movement was loud all across the nation. See some highlights below.

CALIFORNIA:

HAWAII:

ILLINOIS:

 

MINNESOTA:

NEW YORK:

PENNSYLVANIA:

One of the most widely-attended May Day events took place in Washington, D.C., where Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the U.S. citizen wife of wrongly detained Maryland dad and SMART union brother Kilmar Abrego García, joined labor leaders and members to continue shining a light on the unjust detention of her husband. 

The Bulwark’s Adrian Carasquillo reports that organizers expected 3,000 people to crowd Lafayette Square to hear her speak. More than 5,000 ultimately showed up to support immigrant rights, due process, and hear Vasquez Sura speak.

“It has been fifty days of pain and suffering. Fifty days of uncertainty. And as we finally saw proof that Kilmar was alive, my children and I had to watch the Trump and Bukele administrations taunt and ridicule our pain,” Vasquez Sura said in emotional remarks reported by Carasquillo. “This pain is indescribable. My children have been left to live in the silence of their father’s absence. They miss him more than anyone can imagine. The highest court in this nation ruled that Kilmar should be returned home, so why are we still waiting? Enough is enough. Stop playing political games with my husband’s life!”

“Through all of this pain, I continue to find strength in my faith and immense support from our community,” she continued. “My brothers and sisters from CASA, members of the SMART union, allies, faith leaders—all of you continue to lift me up in the darkest of times. Kilmar, if you can hear me: I love you, know that your children and I are still fighting for you. And we will never give up.”

Abrego García’s union, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), has loudly called for his release and due process rights for all. Carasquillo reports the representatives from SMART, American Federation of Teachers, the Service Employees International Union, UniteHere, the National Education Association, and the AFL-CIO were at Thursday’s rally to continue that advocacy. In remarks to Maria Peralta’s The Contrarian, America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas said that “disappearing mothers and toddlers, denying them access to lawyers, and deporting them without due process goes against everything our country claims to stand for.”

“An injury to one is an injury to all,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “When Trump targets immigrant families like Kilmar’s and Rümeysa’s, he targets all workers.”

In New Jersey, Movimento Cosecha organizer Haydi Torres stressed the importance of solidarity and standing up for community members who are feeling vulnerable. “We have to take care of each other in this moment,” she said in remarks reported by NorthJersey.com 

“You see a lot of our community members are missing today because there’s a lot of fear in our communities and it’s real. The repression and the persecution that our communities are living with right now is difficult for a lot of families. So we have to honor that and also honor the resistance of everybody who’s here today.” In California, Los Angeles Daily News reports that social studies teacher Rosa Salas said that resistance “is actually standing up for yourself and standing up for others, even in privilege. I think today is a day that we find inspiration, that we see that we are united and that there’s a path forward in unity.”

A stark contrast to Trump’s dysfunctional vision for America, communities are set to gather to celebrate the labor movement that immigrants are integral to

Essential immigrant workers, students, families, union members and allies are set to take to the streets this upcoming May 1, International Workers Day, to celebrate the achievements of the labor movement and fight for a future that’s fairer and more just for all workers. In Los Angeles alone, more than 55 groups that make up the Los Angeles May Day Coalition plan to take to the streets to defend their communities against attacks on health care, vital federal programs like Social Security and Medicare, workplace rights, and the dignity of all workers.

“Working people, including immigrants, power this city, this county, and this country,” said Pedro Trujillo, Director of Organizing for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) and lead facilitator for the LA May Day Coalition. “We keep our communities running. We are coming together to demand all hands-on deck to fight for our families, collective rights, safety, and future.”

With May Day events expected in nearly 1,000 cities across all 50 states, you too can be a part of the action. In some areas, May Day events are continuing on into the weekend, giving you a greater chance to participate. Make sure to check out both websites below for events near you (and more information on some of the great groups helping to organize them) – and then please share with your family, friends, and neighbors.

In New York, Nisha Tabassum, lead organizer for worker issues at Make the Road New York said the organization is joining over 50 unions and advocacy groups and immigrants’ rights groups at Foley Square.

“We are the many; they are the few,” Tabassum told Democracy Now. “It’s time to stand back and fight. So we’re really encouraging everyone to come join us, come march with us … May Day is rooted in resistance. And this is a moment that we all need to come together to fight against these federal cuts, to fight against the attacks on all different kinds of workers, especially immigrant workers.” Jorge Mújica, strategic organizer for Arise Chicago, said that May Day events in Chicago will seek to note the importance of immigrant workers to essential industries like agriculture and hospitality.

Roughly 2.4 million farmworkers nationwide are the backbone of the agricultural industry and keep food on our tables. At least half of these workers lack legal immigration status. In California, this number could be as high as 75%. Without the skilled and essential labor of these workers, we don’t eat. Don’t forget that immigrants are also the backbone of the construction industry. Immigrants are our children’s teachers, caregivers for our loved ones, and frontline workers keeping our nation healthy. Immigrants are not only major participants in the U.S. workforce, representing one in six U.S. workers, they are significant contributors to our economy and help keep critical social programs alive. When workers thrive, our nation thrives.

Ahead of the national May 1 actions, May Day Strong held a virtual rally featuring speakers including American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who said she was getting out on the streets to say she has immigrants’ backs.

“We are standing up for our immigrant siblings,” Weingarten said in her remarks. “We are standing up for the child who was deported while she had cancer treatments in this country. We are standing up for Kilmar Abrego García and his family. We are standing up for due process. We are standing up for all of our undocumented children who need an education. We are standing up. That’s what we are doing this May Day.”

Pope Francis, the first Latin American and first Jesuit to ascend to the papacy, died on Monday, April 21, at the age of 88. The pope had been hospitalized for weeks after contracting double pneumonia and various infections, and was released last month. Just this past weekend, on Easter Sunday, the pope made a rare public appearance to bless the crowd of worshipers outside St. Peter’s Basilica. “Dear brothers and sisters, happy Easter,” he said.

In a statement following his death, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber, said that Pope Francis “taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized.” In particular, Pope Francis was a stalwart defender of the rights, dignity, and humanity of immigrants and refugees, an issue that “would be a defining issue of his pontificate,” as Catholic Standard reports:

Over the course of his 12-year pontificate, which ended with his death April 21, Pope Francis never relented in his appeals to world leaders and ordinary citizens to treat migrants humanely. He frequently condemned policies of mass deportation, called for more welcoming asylum laws and highlighted the dignity of those crossing borders in search of a better life.

The son of Italian immigrants in Argentina, Pope Francis sometimes invoked his own family history when speaking about migration. In his 2015 address to the U.S. Congress – the first by any pope – he urged lawmakers to embrace migrants rather than fear them.

“I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended from immigrants,” he said, calling for a response to migration that “is always humane, just and fraternal.”

Pope Francis’ first trip outside of Vatican City following his election to the papacy in March 2013 was to visit the small Italian island of Lampedusa, where he threw a wreath into the Mediterranean Sea to commemorate the thousands of migrants and refugees who had tragically drowned – and continue to drown – in its waters while seeking out new lives for themselves and their families. In a speech during that visit, Pope Francis lambasted “the globalization of indifference” to the suffering of our fellow human beings.

“Has any one of us grieved for the death of these brothers and sisters?” he asked. “Has any one of us wept for these persons who were on the boat? For the young mothers carrying their babies? For these men who were looking for a means of supporting their families? We are a society which has forgotten how to weep, how to experience compassion – ‘suffering with’ others: the globalization of indifference has taken from us the ability to weep.”

Migration “played a central role” in nearly all of his dozens of international trips, Catholic Standard noted, including his celebrated visits to North America in 2015 and 2016. In the very first set of remarks during his first visit to the United States in September 2015, Pope Francis called himself “the son of immigrants” and said that he was “happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families.” During this visit, Sophie Cruz, then five-years-old, eagerly broke through a security barricade as the pope’s motorcade passed through downtown Washington, D.C. But rather than turn Sophie away, Pope Francis motioned to his security detail to “let her come,” and the two embraced. Sophie, the daughter of undocumented immigrants, then handed Pope Francis a letter asking him to fight for the nation’s undocumented immigrants.

“Every day I am scared that one day they will take them away from me,” a portion of the letter stated. “I believe I have the right to live with my parents. I have the right to be happy.”

In New York, the chair that Pope Francis used during his address at Madison Square Garden was built by the hands of immigrants. The New York Times called Fausto Hernandez, Hector Rojas and Francisco SantaMaria “the most famous immigrant day laborers in the country right now,” with their names printed in a flood of local and Spanish-language media. But, perhaps, it didn’t compare to one place where their names have been etched. “Hidden on the underside of that elegant arch, above and behind where the papal head will be, are written the names Fausto, Hector and Francisco,” as The Times reported.

Speaking on the steps of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall as his historic visit came to a close, Francis urged America’s immigrants and Latinos to “not be discouraged” by challenges and to “never be ashamed” of who they are.

“Do not be discouraged by whatever hardships you face. I ask you not to forget that, like those who came here before you, you bring many gifts to this nation,” he said. “Please, you should never be ashamed of your traditions. Do not forget the lessons you learned from your elders, which are something you can bring to enrich the life of this American land.”

Pope Francis returned to North America the following year, ending a six-day tour of Mexico in a simple but powerful act of compassion: laying a bouquet of flowers at the feet of a large cross symbolizing the thousands of migrants who have died attempting to cross the U.S./Mexico border. In front of the cross were several pairs of shoes once belonging to migrants who had perished from exposure in the harsh borderlands. The pope then celebrated mass along the border in Ciudad Juárez as countless on the American side watched on.

“No more death! No more exploitation! There is still time to change,” he said. “There is still a way out and a chance, time to implore the mercy of God.”

“When Pope Francis was elected in 2013, the number of international migrants worldwide stood at 231 million,” Catholic Standard continued. “By 2024 that figure had risen to nearly 281 million. As conflicts, economic instability and climate change fueled displacement across continents, Pope Francis persistently framed migration as a fundamental moral issue that had serious policy implications.”

Pope Francis continued speaking out against anti-immigrant policies through the final months of his life, saying that mass deportation policy violates the “dignity of many men and women, and of entire families” and that it “begins badly and will end badly.” In his letter, he compared the forced migration of families to that of the Holy Family’s Biblical flee to Egypt.

“The family of Nazareth in exile, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, emigrants in Egypt and refugees there to escape the wrath of an ungodly king, are the model, the example and the consolation of emigrants and pilgrims of every age and country, of all refugees of every condition who, beset by persecution or necessity, are forced to leave their homeland, beloved family and dear friends for foreign lands,” he wrote in a Feb. 2025 letter. Pope Francis made the comparison in previous years, stating in 2014 that Jesus “was a refugee.”

Immigrant and refugee advocacy organizations have joined in mourning the passing of Pope Francis, who, in one of his most celebrated statements, urged that “We pray for a heart which will embrace immigrants. God will judge us upon how we have treated the most needy.”

“The son of immigrants, he championed the dignity of refugees and migrants with moral clarity and global urgency. His voice may be gone, but his call to welcome the stranger and protect the vulnerable will echo on,” wrote Global Refuge President Krish O’Mara Vignarajah. “Our hearts are heavy with the loss of Pope Francis, our Holy Father who has been a true advocate for immigrants and refugees. His leadership and love for the marginalized have inspired us and countless others to further the Gospel by living out our calling to serve ‘the least of these’ with compassion and unwavering dedication,” said CLINIC Executive Director Anna Gallagher.  “As we grieve this tremendous loss, we also recommit ourselves to the vision he so powerfully championed,” said Estrella del Paso. “In honoring his legacy, we will continue to advocate, serve, and uplift immigrant communities with the same tenderness and courage that Pope Francis embodied.”

“Pope Francis’ leadership and example were a bright light and a source of comfort for immigrants and refugees worldwide,” said America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas. “His passing leaves a deep void, yet this is a moment to follow his lead and recommit to the cause of justice and dignity for immigrants and refugees.”

Immigrants and their immense contributions make our nation stronger and more prosperous

Tax Day 2025 is almost here, meaning millions of workers across the country have either already filed their state and federal returns or are sitting down to finish them up. This includes millions of immigrants, whose immense annual contributions help sustain vital federal programs like Medicare and Social Security, fund our public schools, libraries, and fire departments, and boost our overall economy. Their vast contributions make our nation stronger, more vibrant, and more prosperous. This is true regardless of their legal immigration status.

Last year, research from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) revealed that undocumented workers contributed an astounding $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022 alone. “Most of that amount, $59.4 billion, was paid to the federal government while the remaining $37.3 billion was paid to state and local governments.”

The research further revealed that the contributions of undocumented workers have helped sustain Social Security – a literal lifeline for elderly Americans, disabled Americans, and American children who have lost one or both parents – and Medicare despite being ineligible for these programs themselves.

“More than a third of the tax dollars paid by undocumented immigrants go toward payroll taxes dedicated to funding programs that these workers are barred from accessing,” ITEP said. “Undocumented immigrants paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes, $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes, and $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance taxes in 2022.” This has been true for years. In 2014, Stephen Goss, then-chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, said that undocumented workers paid about $100 billion into Social Security over the previous decade, helping keep the fund solvent for the elderly, disabled Americans, and children.

“You could say legitimately that had we not received the contributions that we have had in the past from undocumented immigrants … that would of course diminish our ability to be paying benefits for as long as we now can,” he said in 2014.

And, unlike the richest Americans in the country, these immigrant workers contribute more than their fair share. ITEP’s research found that across 40 states, “undocumented immigrants pay higher state and local tax rates than the top 1 percent of households living within their borders.” You can see some state-by-state contributions from immigrants here.

When it comes to immigrant-led households overall, these families “paid $524.7 billion in total taxes in 2021, a slight increase since 2019,” Immigration Impact said in 2023. “This includes $346.3 billion in federal income taxes, and $178.4 billion in state and local taxes. These tax contributions made up 15.9% of total tax revenues governments received from U.S. residents in 2021, yet immigrants make up just 13.6% of U.S. households.”

Immigration Impact said that a separate study “found that immigrants’ contributions to Medicare helped prolong the solvency of the program and subsidized its care for roughly 60 million American seniors and disabled individuals.” Related research from the Center for American Progress (CAP) found that DACA recipients contribute nearly $2.1 billion to Social Security and Medicare annually. “In addition, their employers contributed more than $1.6 billion in payroll taxes toward Social Security and Medicare on these DACA recipients’ behalf,” CAP said.

Among these entrepreneurs is Christian Serrano, a Texas-based DACA recipient who started a home design and construction business as a way to support his family. Through hard work and sweat, he now has more than a dozen employees. Numerous studies have found that immigrants start businesses at higher rates than their U.S.-born counterparts. In Dallas, for example, immigrant entrepreneurs make up nearly 39% of business owners despite representing just over 23% of the population. “Like all immigrants, I learned the work ethic through my parents,” said Ken Tse, a Dallas business owner originally from China. “For them, it’s hope, it’s opportunity, it’s sacrifice after sacrifice.”

Meanwhile, harmful policies targeting immigrants are a kitchen table issue, impacting all working families by exacerbating labor shortages, raising food prices, and striking a blow to significant revenues going into local, state, and federal coffers.

Common sense action legalizing undocumented workers would reap massive gains for our country. Research from CAP found that a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. “would boost U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by a cumulative total of $1.7 trillion over ten years and create 438,800 new jobs,” as well as raise the annual wages for all U.S. workers by hundreds of dollars. On Tax Day, remember that immigration is good for American families, it’s good for our economy and businesses, and it’s key to our continued success.

Over the weekend, more than 1,000 demonstrators, some carrying U.S. flags and signs reading “TOM HOMAN TOOK OUR KIDS,” took to the streets in the border czar’s small hometown of Sackets Harbor, New York – population 1,400 – to protest his vile and shocking arrest of a local mother and her three children. The mom, a local dairy worker and contributor to her local community, was reportedly swept up as part of an investigation that didn’t even involve her. Other dairy farm workers were also swept up in the indiscriminate raid. Officials then cruelly detained her three children, the youngest of whom is in elementary school.

On Monday, after days in detention, the Sackets Harbor Superintendent announced that the family would be returning home.

Numerous local, national, and independent media outlets highlighted the swell of outrage over their detention, with local teachers, school officials, and community members taking to the streets to peacefully protest outside Homan’s Sackets Harbor home. Among demonstrators was Jonna St. Croix, a Sackets Harbor Central School educator and teacher to two of the detained children. Croix wrote in a Facebook post shared by Marisa Kabas’ The Handbasket newsletter that the community was angry and in shock.

“They lived in a house on the same road as a home ICE had a warrant for,” Croix wrote. “The fact that ICE went door to door is unfathomable. The fact that our students were handcuffed and put into the same van as the alleged criminal from down the street is unconscionable. When I think of my third grader’s experience, my stomach twists and it is hard to breathe. We are in shock-and it is that shared shock that has unified our community in the call for our students’ release.” Local media outlet 7NEWS devoted a considerable amount of live coverage to the protest.

Croix further disputed Homan’s ridiculous claim that the family was not detained because they’re allegedly witnesses to a crime, and that they’re in no way in “a jail” because it’s “an open air campus.” While Homan was intentionally trying to soften his words amid blowback, it’s worth remembering that back in 2018, a Trump official tried to compare migrant family jails to “summer camp.” But when then-Senator Kamala Harris asked him if he’d send his kids to one, he refused to answer. Not only are these jails, they’re fattening the pockets of private prison CEOs.

“We are in direct communication with our students,” Croix continued. “Let me be clear: they are not ‘being medically evaluated.’ They are not being ‘questioned as potential victims.’ Calling a detention center by another name does not change what it is. We deserve better than spin and misinformation. My teachers and my students are already hurting.” Sackets Harbor Central School principal Jamie Cook shared her personal connection to the abducted children.

“I’ve driven them to their house after tutoring sessions,” Cook told NBC News. “I’ve picked them up for tutoring sessions. In this kind of town, this is a car pool town. I know them.”

While 90-year-old Jane Jenkins couldn’t participate in the march, she arranged to watch from the front of a friend’s home, Syracuse.com reported. “It was important for Jenkins to participate in the march to Homan’s home, even though her legs would not allow her to walk that half-mile distance, she said. Jenkins grew up in West Carthage when Homan — now a divisive figure in the nation’s immigration battle — was just a boy, she recalled.”

Homan apparently skipped town ahead of the protest, employees of a favorite deli spot said he told them. Homan was reportedly flanked by bodyguards, apparently to protect himself from the outrage of elderly community members like Jenkins.

“I needed to be here,” Jenkins told Syracuse.com. “I wanted to be here. We needed to be here.” Statements of support also came from New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, and state attorney general, Letitia James, who similarly demanded the family’s freedom. “That is not the immigration enforcement promised to the American people. It’s just plain cruel,” Gov. Hochul said. “I want this family returned to New York state and believe ICE needs to immediately answer for these actions.”

It’s unclear at the moment how much of the pushback from reporting and local community members like Jenkins factored into the family’s release, but what is known is that they’re returning to a community that turned out in full force for them.

“My colleagues and I are relieved and grateful to share that, after eleven days of uncertainty, our students and their mother are returning home,” said the Sackets Harbor Superintendent. “We remain committed to providing the care, understanding, and sensitivity necessary for all students and staff as we begin the healing process from this traumatic experience. In the midst of this difficult time, the strength, compassion, and resilience of our community have shone through. We are very thankful to everyone who has reached out with kindness and offered support.”

Kabas noted that while ICE forcibly moved the family from New York to a migrant family jail in Texas, the agency doesn’t appear to be providing transportation home. “Their amazing community has arranged for travel,” she reported. “The people of Sackets Harbor—and especially the school administrators and teachers—should be an example for us all that when Trump’s goons come knocking, telling them HELL NO can work.”

 

On March 31, César Chávez Day, approximately 5,000 union members, community members, and allies from all over California gathered in Delano, the birthplace of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union, to honor the late labor leader and to march in solidarity with immigrant workers. The march, “Con Estas Manos / With These Hands,” highlighted the importance of immigrant essential workers to the economy and was the largest mobilization of union workers on behalf of immigrant rights so far this year, UFW organizers said

Among the marchers was Carolina Sanchez, a farmworker who organized hundreds of her coworkers to strike “after the blueberry farm where she worked changed the daily rate for each pound she picked,” NBC News reported. “Eventually, they won a union contract, and Sanchez was elected as the union representative at her workplace.”

Sanchez and her coworkers joined other essential workers like construction and health care workers, faith leaders, unions like the California Federation of Labor Unions and SEIU California, leaders like California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and the family of César Chávez to march from Delano’s Memorial Park to the UFW union hall at 40 Acres, the national historic landmark where Chávez held his first public fast in support of farmworker rights.

Speakers stressed the need to honor the legacy of César Chávez by standing in solidarity with the essential workers who feed us, and ensuring the protection, dignity, and rights of all workers who keep vital industries alive and have been critical to our economy’s growth. At least half of the nation’s roughly 2.4 million farmworkers are estimated to lack legal immigration status. In California, that number could be as high as 75%. These often overlooked farmworkers also fed us during the pandemic and were among the essential workers who risked their lives to keep our vital food sector running.

There’s truly no understating their importance. Pete Wiersma, the president of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, said last year that he didn’t think there could be a dairy industry without the skills and labor of immigrant workers. “I just don’t think we could get it done,” he said. “Workers from Mexico and other Latin American countries make up an estimated 70% of the labor force on Wisconsin dairy farms,” the Wisconsin Examiner said last year. Many are undocumented.

Ahead of the march, Hilario, a farmworker and UFW member of more than four decades, shared how he’s been a part of the movement for labor rights for years. “I want to personally thank César for teaching us to defend ourselves and enjoy the benefits that he fought for together with us,” he said in a video shared by UFW. “We have many benefits that we didn’t have before, better treatment and also better salaries than the average worker … I met César personally, he considered me a person …”

Bonta, an immigrant originally from the Philippines, shared his personal connection to the march. “Being here is like coming home for me,” he told NBC News. “I grew up with my parents working for United Farm Workers, and I know the fight is not about the grapes or the lettuce, but it’s about the people,” he continued, quoting some of Chávez’s most enduring words.

The Rev. Brandon Johnson of First Christian Church of Burbank was among the many attendees who traveled from across the state to march with workers. He said his faith called him to stand in solidarity with immigrants. “Immigrants are a story throughout scripture,” Rev. Johnson told Bakersfield.com. “Jesus himself and his family were refugees. So standing up for those rights and protecting those individuals is fundamental to my faith and my theology.”

“In a time like this, it takes courage just to do what we have been doing,” said UFW President Teresa Romero.“Farm workers – like all workers – need to keep organizing to protect themselves and protect each other. The thousands of workers gathering in Delano are all sending a very clear message of solidarity with ALL workers, no matter where they work or where they are from.” It’s necessary to recognize and honor the labor of essential workers – and we can and must do more.

“My dad showed us that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things. His life serves as a blueprint for change, demonstrating that when we organize, persist, and stand together, we win.” said Chávez’s son Paul. “The unparalleled threats immigrants, Latinos, and farmworkers are facing deserves a dignified response, and with today’s march, we honor the life of Cesar Chavez and send a clear signal: every single one of us has the power to better our lives when we stand together and fight for what’s right.”

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Trump is driving the American brand into the ground. The world is seeing how we’re treating foreign visitors

Since Trump became President again, U.S. media has been covering his brutal anti-immigrant actions, but often taking its usual “both-sides” approach to reporting that softens his cruelty. Over the past few weeks, the crisis has escalated – and snared tourists traveling to the U.S. in its ever-widening net of abducting and detaining, or denying entry to people from around the world who are typically not targets for U.S. immigration officials. From Canada, to Great Britain, to Germany, families of those detained or denied entry, and non-US media outlets from around the world are rightfully highlighting that any non-American traveling to the U.S. is at risk.

First, let’s start with some U.S. coverage of the warnings our allies are giving to their citizens:

Reuters: Britain beefs up travel warnings over US border enforcement

Reuters: Germany updates US travel advice after citizens detained

Newsweek: Denmark Issues Travel Warning For US

Associated Press: Detentions Of European Tourists At U.S. Borders Spark Fears Of Traveling To America

Below are just a few examples of the way foreign and foreign-language media is covering the often-barbaric detention of their citizens by Trump and his administration:

DW: Why are Germans being detained by US immigration?

The Guardian: I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped

Vancouver Sun: B.C. woman detained at U.S. border finally back home in Abbotsford 

BBC: Dad hopeful US detained tourist to be released

SKY News: Rebecca Burke: Father of British backpacker being held in US says her ‘life-changing trip has turned into a nightmare’

Independent: American Pie actor breaks silence after being detained by ICE for 12 days

RTL Deutschland: Deutscher sitzt wochenlang in US-Abschiebehaft (German man spends weeks in US deportation detention)

Spiegel: Nächster Deutscher landet in US-Abschiebehaft (Next German ends up in US deportation detention)

Rheinische Post: Transgender people must be careful when traveling to the USA

Independent: German national arrested at Boston airport and his family has no clue why he is being held by ICE

Luxembourg Times: US resident ‘violently interrogated’ on way home from Luxembourg

BBC: Welsh tourist in US chained ‘like Hannibal Lecter’

SeattleN: 미국내 한국 유학생도 체포…불법 취업했다 덜미 (South Korean student studying in the US also arrested… caught working illegally)

Pressian: ‘200년된 법’ 끄집어낸 트럼프, 법원 명령 무시하고 베네수엘라 이민자 추방 (Trump invokes ‘200-year-old law’ to deport Venezuelan immigrants, ignoring court order)

SBS News: 미국, 가자 전쟁 시위 학생들에 잇단 강경 조치…체포에 비자 취소 출처 : SBS 뉴스  원본 링크 (US Takes Strong Action Against Students Protesting Gaza War… Visa Cancellations for Arrests)

The Chronicle Herald: ‘Canada or America?’ Touring N.S. folk duo questioned by state troopers

Le Monde: Etats-Unis : un chercheur français refoulé pour avoir exprimé « une opinion personnelle sur la politique menée par l’administration Trump » (United States: French researcher expelled for expressing ‘a personal opinion on the policies pursued by the Trump administration’)

Le Monde: French researcher denied entry to US for ‘expressing personal opinion’ on Trump policies

The final link is particularly chilling. Le Monde reports that the researcher was forced onto a return flight back to Europe after authorities read text messages where he expressed personal opinions critical of the Trump administration’s stances on research. “An FBI investigation was opened, for which ‘the charges have been dropped,’ continued this source.” So, it appears there was nothing there. Just his personal opinions. Much like the brutal persecution of green card-holder Mahmoud Khalil, the administration is targeting individuals for views it doesn’t like. Our allies are noticing – and some are urging their citizens to perhaps stay away. Not only is our standing in the world hurting, it’ll hurt us here at home too.

Some of the ugliest acts from Donald Trump’s first term were directed at  the most vulnerable: children. These attacks included the shameful policy of ripping 5,500 weeping migrant children, including nursing infants and toddlers, from the arms of their loved ones. Despite the established traumatic effects of these policies on kids, Trump and Stephen Miller continue to single them out for attack. Immigration Impact’s Rebecca Cassler reports that the Trump administration is looking to carry out a “mass child deportation plan”:

An ICE memo that leaked this week directs the agency to work up plans to arrest and deport kids who entered the country without their parents. The deportation plans reportedly focus on children with removal orders, including tens of thousands of cases where a child was ordered removed solely due to missing a court date. The plan also includes introducing removal charges in immigration court against children who do not already have removal orders.

Rolling Stone’s Peter Wade reports that some minors are being labeled as “flight risks,” while others are being prioritized as “public safety” or “border security.” It’s hard to grasp how Trump and his officials are trying to frame minors as a public safety threat, as this memo appears to be doing, when we know that these are children who are oftentimes running from danger. Many have fled their home countries in order to escape life-or-death situations, like forced gang recruitment. In fact, 2014 data from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees indicated that nearly 60% of unaccompanied minors had “a viable claim to refugee protections under international law.”

Instead, the Trump administration is only heightening the risks already facing them. “The administration’s purported justification for seeking to deport children is ensuring they are not victims of human trafficking or other exploitation,” Immigration Impact notes. It’s true that in the past, some migrant children have been exploited under despicable schemes. The solution here is to root out and punish those individuals carrying out these heinous crimes, not their victims. “But targeting children—including the very young—for arrest and deportation will upend their lives while doing little to combat child trafficking and exploitation,” as Immigration Impact notes.

The Trump administration’s end goal here is not to protect children and our communities. If that were the case, it would not be diverting critical resources that have been combating human and drug trafficking here at home, or freezing funds for programs supporting victims of online child exploitation and trafficking around the world, as Wired’s Matt Burgess has reported. Instead, this is part of an effort to widen the number of individuals the administration seeks to make deportable, even if they have no criminal record at all – and even if they’re children seeking safety here. Just look at the recent attempt to end funding for legal representation for these same children. Bloomberg’s Frank Wilkinson:

For years, a vast network of nongovernmental organizations has helped these children navigate our byzantine immigration system. This month, arbitrarily and without warning, the Trump administration cut off congressionally authorized funding to that network. On Feb. 18, the Trump administration sent a memo to the Acacia Center for Justice, a government contractor that serves roughly 26,000 children, telling them and their subcontractors to stop providing services.

“We immediately convened our leadership team and started to plan for what this would look like,” Wendy Young, the president of KIND, which provides legal services to migrant children, told me in a telephone interview this week. KIND gets two-thirds of its budget from Acacia. “We immediately decided we would have to furlough staff,” Young said.

Florence Immigrant And Refugee Rights Project, another organization that receives funding to carry out their fundamentally pro-child work, was also impacted. “On Tuesday, we received an alarming stop work order on the services we provide to detained immigrant children, including Know Your Rights presentations and legal education,” the organization wrote at Bluesky on Feb. 21. During a Feb. 19 press call denouncing the Trump administration’s work stop order, Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) said some of its clients are so young that attorneys have brought teddy bears to court to help with the stress of attending an immigration hearing that could determine their future.

“MIRC represented a ten-month-old baby – the youngest child taken from a parent during the family separation crisis – and successfully reunited him with his family through the unaccommodated children’s program in 2018, along with hundreds of other kids brought to our state,” Executive Director Susan E. Reed said during the call. “To see the same group of vulnerable children targeted again is the gravest injustice.”

Under public pushback, the Trump administration backtracked on its decision to issue the stop work order. “The Friday notice from the United States Department of Interior obtained by The Associated Press does not explain the Trump administration decision to reinstate the program,” a report said. But Acacia provided some insight, saying that members of the public sent more than 15,000 letters to lawmakers over the course of just 48 hours demanding the reinstatement of critical resources for children. “However, with this stop-work order lifted, our work is far from over – we are in a critical moment to ensure that no child is forced to navigate our immigration system alone,” said Executive Director Shaina Aber.

Despite this hard-fought win by advocates, the need to protect children remains critical. The internal memo exposing the administration’s plan to label minors as “flight risks” and target them for deportation leaked just days after the work stop order walkback. Trump’s mass deportation plans also represent a threat to millions of American citizen children who could be separated from an undocumented parent. Trump is looking to fund mass detention camps and mass deportation by slashing critical programs for working families, with mass deportations standing to only worsen inflation and further raise food costs, which will also hurt children.

And, most recently, the administration plans to line the pockets of private prisons and corporate executives at the expense of children and parents who had the courage to seek new lives here by reviving family detention. Bloomberg Law’s Justin Wise and Suzanne Monyak further reports that Trump’s Justice Department horrifically plans to drop a Biden-era lawsuit “alleging sexual abuse by employees of a company that houses thousands of unaccompanied migrant children and has received billions of dollars in federal grants to operate the facilities”:

The Justice Department alleged in July 2024 that Southwest Key employees sexually abused and harassed children between the ages of 5 and 17 at its shelters over an eight-year span. The company is also accused of failing to properly respond and prevent the abuse in violation of the Fair Housing Act, which bars discrimination in housing.

At least two former Southwest Key employees have also been separately convicted in state and federal courts of sexually abusing migrant children at the facilities.

“This is exactly what we warned about, Trump’s obsession with immigration is indiscriminate and heartless. His administration is once again targeting women and children, separating families and harming our communities,” responded America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas. “Family separation and detention was one of the lowest points of the first Trump Administration and Americans resoundingly rejected it.  This is another proof point of Trump’s harmful obsession with immigration and the targeting of our families no matter the cost.”

Family detention is just one part of their cruel scheme. This weekend, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem (we should say “Acting” Secretary cause it’s an act. She has no real authority, that’s all Stephen Miller. Her job is to do media and stunts), was once again trumpeting “child separation” on “Face the Nation”:

“Remember, everybody has an option,” Noem said on Face the Nation. “They have an option to be here legally or illegally, and they can self-deport as well.”

“The kids don’t really have a choice in this,” Brennan interjected before she was cut off.

“Well, the kids do have a choice,” Noem said. “If they have parents, they make a choice to keep their families together, if they want to or not.”

The first Trump administration’s vile child separation shocked the nation. And, it’s clear the new version will be even worse. “The kids have a choice” are the words of a monster.

Actor and activist Zoë Saldaña paid tribute to her immigrant roots during an emotional Oscar acceptance speech Sunday night, honoring the hard work of her immigrant parents and dedicating her win to her immigrant grandmother.

“My grandmother came to this country in 1961,” she said during remarks that drew rousing applause. “I am a proud child of immigrant parents, with dreams and dignity and hardworking hands.” Saldaña, who won Best Supporting Actress for her role as an attorney in the French film ​​”Emilia Pérez,” also made history as the first Dominican American actor to win an Oscar. She said she hoped it would only light the way for others to follow.

“And I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award,” she continued, “and I know I will not be the last.”

Saldaña saved some of her most poignant words when speaking about her immigrant grandmother, saying that winning Hollywood’s top movie prize for a role where she got to speak Spanish would have made her especially proud.

“I hold the fact that I’m getting an award to a role where I got to sing and speak in Spanish — my grandmother, if she were here, she would be so delighted,” Saldaña continued. “This for my grandmother, Argentina Cesse. Thank you so much. Muchas gracias.” Watch her speech in its entirety.

Adrien Brody, who won Best Actor for his performance as a Holocaust survivor in “The Brutalist,” also lifted up his immigrant heritage during his Best Actor win at January’s Golden Globes, saying that his character’s journey was “very reminiscent of my mother’s and my ancestors’ journey of fleeing war and coming to this great country.”

“I owe so much to my mother and my grandparents for their sacrifice,” he said, “and although I do not know fully how to express all of the challenges that you have faced and experienced, and the many people who have struggled immigrating to this country, I hope that this work stands to lift you up a bit and to give you a voice. I’m so grateful. I will cherish this moment forever.”

The Oscars have been criticized in the past for a lack of diversity among nominees and winners, making messages like that of Saldaña and “Everything Everywhere All At Once” star Ke Huy Quan all the more crucial. “My journey started on a boat,” he said following his win for Best Supporting Actor in 2023. “I spent a year in a refugee camp, and somehow I ended up here, on Hollywood’s biggest stage. They say stories like this only happen in the movies – I cannot believe it’s happening to me. This is the American dream.” And during the Grammy Awards last month, Shakira dedicated her win for Best Latin Pop Album for “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran” to her “immigrant brothers and sisters.”

“I want to dedicate this award to all my immigrant brothers and sisters in this country,” said the Colombian-born singer-songwriter, who ranks as one of the world’s best-selling artists. “You are loved, you are worth it, and I will always fight with you.”