Advocate for Refugees & Newcomers
Use your voice to advocate for the needs of refugees and newcomers in our community
On June 2-4, refugee and forcibly displaced community leaders, local service providers, and a diverse array of allies are headed to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. to urge Congress to fight for asylum, refugee, and humanitarian programs.
You can amplify the chorus of voices calling for welcoming policies by emailing and calling your Members of Congress throughout the month of June and especially the week of June 2nd.
State and local leaders also need to hear from you. Local leaders often are at the forefront of advancing critical policies and programs that ensure our communities have the resources they need to help protect refugees and asylum seekers against harmful policies coming down from the Trump administration. State and local elected officials have an important role to play to defend our capacity to welcome.
Current State and Federal Bills Impacting Refugee and Newcomer Communities
Follow and Support the following policies impacting refugees and newcomers.
California Senate and Assembly bills
SB 12 (Gonzalez) Office Of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs: This bill would create the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) to serve as the lead agency and coordinate with other key state agencies to provide services to this population.
SB 48 – Protecting Immigrant Students in Schools: This legislation aims to prohibit immigration enforcement activities on K–12 school grounds and mandates the Attorney General to publish model policies to assist schools in responding to immigration issues, ensuring a safe educational environment for all students.
SB 841 (Rubio)—This bill will protect domestic violence shelters, human trafficking, rape crisis centers, and homeless shelters without fear of unwarranted immigration enforcement.
AB 49 (Muratsuchi) School Sites Entry Requirement: Prohibits school sites from allowing immigration enforcement without proper identification, written statement of purpose, valid judicial warrant, and approval from the Superintendent.
AB 450 (Carrilo) Taskforce to Address Undocumented Senior Needs:This bill would convene experts to develop policy solutions for the growing needs of undocumented seniors in California.
AB 495 – Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025: This bill seeks to protect children in immigrant and mixed-status families by ensuring updated emergency contact information and legal recognition of caregiving arrangements in cases where parents or caregivers are deported.
AB 548 (Solache) ESAVN: Provides state level outreach and culturally appropriate and responsive case management services for asylees and vulnerable non-citizens for up to 90 days within the first year of grant of asylum.
SB 635 (Durazo) Street Vendor Protection Act: Prohibits the collection of information about immigration, citizenship status, place of birth, and information about an individual’s criminal history to protect street vendors from immigration enforcement.
AB 1362 (Kalra) Labor and Human Trafficking Protection for Temporary Workers: Builds upon SB 477 (Steinberg, statutes of 2014) to extend critical labor and trafficking protections to temporary workers recruited by foreign labor contractors.
Federal Bills
Support the American Families United Act (H.R. 2366): This bipartisan bill aims to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to promote family unity by granting immigration judges and officials discretion in cases involving the spouses and children of U.S. citizens, potentially preventing family separations.
Oppose Executive Order 14159: Signed in January 2025, this order expands expedited removal processes, penalizes undocumented immigrants for failing to register, and withholds federal funding from sanctuary jurisdictions. It has raised concerns about due process and the targeting of immigrant communities.
Challenge Executive Order 14160: This order seeks to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants or those on temporary visas. Multiple legal challenges have been filed, arguing it violates the 14th Amendment.
Join the CWS Journey for Justice! Between now and June 20 (World Refugee Day) walk/run 43.7 miles in solidarity with the 43.7 million refugees worldwide. Share with your friends and family to raise awareness and funds to provide critical support to people who have been forced to flee their homes.
On March 21, the Trump administration issued, with immediate effect, a near-total termination of the Unaccompanied Children Program, which provides legal representation to thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children across the country, including infants.
The termination forces unaccompanied children – among the most vulnerable individuals in our immigration system – to navigate and somehow represent themselves in immigration court proceedings. Some children as young as two years old have been deported after being forced to represent themselves.
Many unaccompanied children have asylum claims or are seeking another form of protection from deportation back to the dangerous situations they fled, such as abuse, abandonment, neglect, or human trafficking. The lives of these children matter – and we stand at a pivotal moment to make a difference.
Contact your Members of Congress TODAY and tell them to call for the Trump administration to rescind the termination of the Unaccompanied Children Program – and to keep children safe by supporting essential services and pushing back against rapid deportation efforts.
In recognition of World Refugee Day, we invite you to join us for a timely and impactful webinar on June 23, 2025, from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM (PST).
This virtual panel will provide an in-depth exploration of the refugee experience focusing on Afghan and Ukrainian communities, and will address systemic barriers, recent immigration policy changes, and the essential role of advocacy in shaping more equitable resettlement outcomes.
The National Newcomer Network (NNN) is a coalition of educators, community leaders, advocates, researchers, and policymakers from across the country committed to improving access to high quality public educational programs and equitable policies and practices for K-12 newcomer students.
NNN addresses educational disparities and provides targeted support to education leaders to meet newcomer students’ needs, coordinates strategic efforts to align with current events, and expands programming with members to provide more direct legal and strategic support to school and district leaders. Since NNN’s founding in 2022, the network has grown to a membership of nearly 400 educators, researchers, and advocates in 44 states. The network plays a critical role in increasing awareness of best practices for newcomer educational equity and driving the policy changes that can bring those practices to scale across the country.
Learn more at https://tcf.org/nnn/ or register using the link below
Congress is currently in the midst of debating a budget reconciliation bill that seeks to divert massive funds to immigrant detention, deportation, and border militarization and strip access to programs that connect immigrant and U.S.-born families, children, and communities to basic resources.
Take action by emailing and calling your member of Congress and telling them to reject the reconciliation bill and oppose the harmful provisions discussed above.
The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) is under unprecedented threat, as is the humanitarian infrastructure serving forcibly displaced people worldwide and here in the U.S. The indefinite refugee ban remains in place, blocking funding for resettlement agencies and stranding thousands of refugees without basic support.
Resettlement offices around the country are struggling to stay open and serve vulnerable individuals who have already been resettled, relying on crucial Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) integration programs that still exist — for now — to do so. Overseas, steep cuts to humanitarian aid have placed already-vulnerable refugees in even greater insecurity and danger.
Take action by urging your member of Congress to join the letters and stand up for refugees.
Despite multiple court orders, the Trump administration’s refugee ban and funding freeze remain largely in place. Thousands of refugees have been left stranded abroad, often in dangerous conditions without basic support. Refugees who were recently resettled across the United States – those who finally found a safe place to call home after years of lengthy screening and vetting – are at risk of extreme economic insecurity and homelessness. Many resettlement agencies have received little or in many cases no reimbursement from the federal government for their ongoing services to refugees in need.
Take action by emailing or calling your Member of Congress to advocate for the refugee resettlement program.