The current ruling is: that people who are US residents or citizens will receive the assistance but if you have a person without proper papers, that person would be excluded. The new ruling would not allow the person to stay in the place at all.
Working in our communities I have a number of concerns if the new ruling would come into place.
Before I explain, let me clarify that I am NOT for breaking the laws, but I am also aware that currently there is no pathway for undocumented community members to receive a legal status without either leaving this country for long periods of time (leaving the rest of the family to fend for themselves), or paying a huge sum of money in the hopes that the lawyer knows what they are doing and will do the right thing.
With that said, here are my concerns:
· The new ruling would probably affect many of our seniors who would be out on the street with no safety net to help them.
· The new ruling would disrupt a strong family structure were people rely on each other, learn from each other and grow together. I always talk about the many communal things we can learn from our Latino neighbors.
· The new ruling would affect the way that the rest of the family would be able to move forward. The older generation are often the ones that takes care of the children when the parent is at work, or school. With that safety net gone, many more people will need to use other resources to be able to sustain themselves?
I know I don’t have all the answers, or even understand some of the language, but I believe that we err on the side of compassion and justice and look at the bigger picture for the next generation.
While I don’t understand even half of the bill, I believe that we need to work together to better solutions.