The Power of
Advocacy
Supporting Our Community’s Recovery and Success
The Power of Our Voice
Year after year, we and our network of Affiliates tirelessly tackle a broad spectrum of issues, spanning from education to career pathways, health to housing and voting rights to civil rights. In 2023, our Affiliates continued to be key partners in informing, elevating and advancing UnidosUS’s policy agenda by joining conversations with policymakers and voicing expertise across all the concerns that impact the Latino community.
In our ongoing commitment to mitigating harms while uplifting our community’s determination and resilience, UnidosUS remains a leading advocate for civil rights. Emphasizing the necessity of adopting a cultural lens to mitigate bias, we recognize the importance of addressing the unique challenges faced by Latinos. These are some of the key issue areas that continued to shape our efforts in 2023.
Ensuring Responsible AI Development
Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have the potential to create life-changing opportunities for Latinos and other communities, bridging the digital equity gap. But current practices fall short of this vision.
Latinos will account for a stunning 78% of new U.S. workers between 2020 to 2030. However, some 57% of Latinos between the ages of 16 and 64 have low or no digital skills caused by a lack of access to devices, services, and digital readiness skills. This makes Hispanic workers particularly vulnerable to job displacement from technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Today our nation can innovate in the right way by making sure these tools are developed and can be accessed with inclusivity, transparency and equity at the forefront. That is why this year we welcomed the current presidential administration’s executive order on managing the risks of AI. We testified in Congress and recommended democratic standards, engagement with impacted groups and equitable infrastructure investments for AI oversight. We also represented our community and joined with other civil rights and tech leaders at the U.S. Senate’s Inaugural AI Insights Forum.
Some 57% of Latinos between the ages of 16 and 64 have low or no digital skills caused by a lack of access to devices, services, and digital readiness skills. This makes Hispanic workers particularly vulnerable to job displacement from technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Our aim is to establish robust legal guardrails for AI, ensuring its benefits are shared while safeguarding Latinos' civil rights. Your generous contributions ensure that we can persist in advocating for equitable policies and developing programs that can eliminate the digital divide and empower Latinos for the jobs of the future.
Learn more about our advocacy for equitable AI policies.
Protecting our Community’s Access to Health Care
Two hours and 22 minutes. That's the average wait time for a Floridian seeking Spanish-language support from the state's Medicaid call center.
Call centers are many people’s only realistic option to provide the state with information needed to renew their Medicaid eligibility. These delays prevent many eligible families from renewing health care—something we advocated to protect with your support in 2023.
As of April 1, 2023, when Medicaid pandemic protections expired, states were permitted to reevaluate eligibility, leading to the termination of many families' Medicaid for the first time since February 2020. Over half of the 10 million people terminated are estimated to be from communities of color, with more than 70% potentially still eligible.
Over half of the 10 million people terminated from Medicaid are estimated to be from communities of color, with more than 70% potentially still eligible.
Terminations often result from missing paperwork due to unnecessary state-imposed red tape and bureaucracy. We, along with a coalition of sister organizations, continue to call for all states to minimize procedural termination rates and to halt terminations solely due to missing paperwork.
Our work to protect health care for the most vulnerable has helped safeguard Medicaid coverage for nearly 500,000 individuals—many of them children or immigrants—who had been wrongfully terminated. With your support, we will continue to build on our decades of experience to accelerate the systems change needed to foster a healthier, thriving Latino community.
Learn more about how UnidosUS is taking steps to protect Latino families’ health care. Read about UnidosUS's decades-long advocacy to strengthen federal nutrition programs to alleviate food insecurity.
Expanding Opportunities for Immigrants
Hardworking immigrants are part of our families and communities and are making immense contributions to our nation. In September 2023, we commended the current administration for extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Venezuelans, a move that could benefit nearly half a million Venezuelans with work authorization and protection from deportation.
TPS was also extended to an estimated 837,000 immigrants from countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua to legally reside and work in the U.S. We continue to call for bipartisan, humane policy solutions to modernize the immigration system.
Our community does not support open borders, nor do we tolerate seeing children in danger, families separated and detained or people suffering. We want a functioning immigration system that is humane, efficient, and secure.
We are opposed to potential expansions of rapid deportations and significant restrictions on accessing asylum at the U.S.–Mexico border, emphasizing the threats these measures pose to the safety and security of the country's 62 million Latinos.
Learn more about our work for humane, sensible immigration policies.
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