Advocates for Youth condemns the racist and anti-immigrant bills passed in Florida this week, including the new law barring Chinese citizens from purchasing land in Florida and a bill that makes helping an undocumented person a felony and forces hospitals to record the immigration status of patients.  These bills will deepen the harm Florida and other states continue to inflict on migrants. 

Anti-Asian rhetoric proliferated during the COVID-19 pandemic and created an atmosphere of fear and discrimination for Asian Americans, which Florida’s new laws have now codified. 

Justice for immigrants is crucial to the work of Advocates for Youth. All young people have the right to lead healthy lives and the right to safe and supportive environments. No young person should be held in a cage and treated as an enemy of the state. And a young person who fears theirs or their family’s deportation can’t get the health care, education,and resources they need. Young people are working toward a better and more equitable world, and securing rights and opportunities for migrants is a key part of that vision.

As Title 42, the rule blocking immigration during the COVID-19 emergency, comes to an end, Advocates for Youth also urges both parties to refrain from fearmongering and vilifying migrants. We need to turn away from public dialogue that treats immigrants as a threat. All people have the right to seek safety and to work towards a life in which they and their families thrive.  Migrants deserve to live in our country with dignity and respect. Young people will not stand for racist and hate-filled dialogue that shames and scapegoats immigrants working to make a life for themselves in this country.