CELEBRATE THE WINS OF THE 2024 LEGISLATIVE SESSION!
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Report from WAISN: Congratulations are in order! Thanks to your efforts we secured funding and passed legislation for vital programs that will expand healthcare access, provide life-saving support for newly arriving migrants, move forward our goal of providing unemployment insurance for ALL workers in Washington, and so much more. Check out the summary below of some of this year’s major legislative victories: Health Equity for Immigrants We secured $28.4M in the budget to expand healthcare access for the medicaid-equivalent! This includes $27.5M to support access for our low-income community members to be able to access the medicaid-equivalent program. This means that double the number of those who originally would have accessed the program, will now be able to be served at the time of the July 1st roll out. Support for Newly Arrived Migrants We secured $25M in the budget to support newly arrived migrants and asylum seekers! This will go to the Washington Department of Social and Health Services Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance (DSHS ORIA) to provide support services including housing assistance, food, transportation, childhood education services, education and employment supports, connection to legal services, and social services navigation. The Legislature also allocated $7.5M for the Department of Commerce for grants to King County and the City of Tukwila for transitional and long-term housing support and $1M for community & technical colleges to expand existing educational programming for refugees and immigrants, removing restrictions based on eligibility for federal refugee resettlement services Additionally, HB 2368 passed in the legislature! This legislation officially designates DSHS ORIA as the agency that coordinates statewide support to immigrants and refugees and clarifies the authority of the agency to administer services to immigrants ineligible for federally funded services. This is an important step towards the state coordinating the response to assist those who have newly arrived! Unemployment Insurance for Undocumented Workers We secured $100K in the budget for a Work Group that will work to identify dedicated revenue streams for a wage replacement program for undocumented workers in 2025! This is an important step towards passing our bill for Unemployment Insurance for Undocumented Workers, and we’re committed to continuing to fight to provide unemployment insurance for all workers in Washington — regardless of citizenship status. In addition to these achievements for our primary campaigns, we are also excited to share these wins for campaigns on our secondary and tertiary platform: Professional Licenses for Washington’s Immigrants HB 1889 passed in the legislature! The Communities for Our Colleges Coalition led this campaign to update our state laws so that all Washingtonians can receive professional licenses and certifications regardless of immigration or citizenship status, and $55K was secured in the budget for its implementation! Nothing About Us Without Us HB 1541 passed in the legislature! Led by Disability Rights Washington, this legislation increases access and representation in policy-making by requiring legislative task forces, work groups, and advisory committees for issues affecting underrepresented populations to include at least three people with direct lived experience on that issue. This campaign originated in the Developmental Disabilities community but will benefit every underrepresented community in the State. Dual & Tribal Language Education HB 1228 passed in the legislature! Championed by OneAmerica for many years, this legislation will establish and expand dual language and tribal language education programs in schools, making sure that our education system honors and respects our cultures and languages and is accessible to immigrant children. In addition, $185K was included in the budget for implementation! Deferred Action for Workers The Injury2All Coalition secured $350K in the budget for legal services, training, outreach, and education to immigrant workers who are victims of labor violations! This funding will allow more immigrant workers to access a federal program that provides protection from immigration-related retaliation and exploitation when they speak up about unjust labor practices and violations. While there is still much work to be done, I want to make sure that we take some time to celebrate these incredible wins and the collective efforts that made this happen. I want to acknowledge our partners and legislative champions in both the House and Senate as well as our strong and resilient community leaders who took the time to support all of these campaigns this session. I want to thank you, deeply, for being courageous in demanding accountability from lawmakers, sharing your stories, and fighting for the rights and dignity of ALL immigrants in Washington state. This could not have been possible without every single person who took action, and put pressure on lawmakers to support our immigrant families, friends, and neighbors. Now we have one last action for you before we close out this session: Follow us on social media on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to help us uplift these critical pieces of Legislation and the expansion of life-saving programs as we share this news over the coming days! Everyday we move closer to realizing Washington State as a place where immigrants from all races, genders, sexualities, and classes can dare to thrive and push our local and state governments to serve all Washingtonians regardless of citizenship status. So let’s celebrate today as tomorrow we join back the fight for immigrant justice. Catalina Velazquez Pronouns: She/Her Executive Director, WAISN |
