A Touch Of Humanity: Resources for Undocumented People and Advocates

Presenter(s)

Josue Estrada, Katherine Feldman, Edith Huizar, Martin Nguyen, Carolina Sanchez Mendoza

Abstract or Description

Prior research supports the need for improvement in access to health care (Horton, 2004; Andaya, 2017) for undocumented immigrants in the United States, and it also reveals the importance of advocacy work for one of the country’s most vulnerable populations. The American Immigration Council estimates that the undocumented immigrant population in Colorado in 2016 was 190,000, compromising 34% of Colorado’s total immigrant population (American Immigration Council, 2020). This group includes all foreign-born non-citizens who enter the U.S. without legal permission and valid documents, including individuals who overstay their legal immigrant visas. Access to health care services, affordable housing, fair labor, and employment law protections, are all significant barriers to health promotion and disease prevention for the undocumented immigrant community. Through large-scale asset mapping and community-based research, our goal was to create a grassroots advocacy platform via a website which will serve as an informative proxy for not only the undocumented community, but also for allies and the general public. We foresee this site as a place where undocumented immigrants, allies, and communtiy leaders can unite and share pertinent information, and become aware of pressing issues affecting the undocumented community. Research and resources regarding housing, education, labor, health, and immigration rights, will be translated into multiple languages, to make knowledge of such issues as accessible as possible. Through the compilation of this project, we have come to understand the many needs of the undocumented community in Colorado. We note that the endless obstacles undocumented immigrant communities face from marginalization, low socioeconomic status, and language barriers are by no means solved by the creation of a website, but we strongly believe it is a step forward in helping relieve some of the difficulties faced by this community.