UnidosUS 2024 Annual Conference: Save the Date for Las Vegas! Join us July 15-17 in Las Vegas for the UnidosUS Annual Conference—the premier event that brings together familia from across the country to activate the power of the Latino community.       The conference offers three days to experience collaboration, innovation, and thought leadership, including unique opportunities to: Connect with visionary community advocates who are actively designing solutions to pressing Latino issues such as education, health care, racial equity, immigration, housing, and more. Share best pr ..read more

UnidosUS’s New Strategic Direction Will Build Wealth, Health, and Power As we welcome spring and the new beginnings it ushers in, I’m excited to share with you— our invaluable donors— UnidosUS’s new strategic direction that will lead to building wealth, health, and power for our community. During the better part of the last year, UnidosUS conducted a strategic planning process that engaged internal and external stakeholders, including our Affiliate Network, Board members, funders, sector experts, UnidosUS leadership, and current and former staff. Our 55+ year history as the largest Latino civ ..read more

Lucia and Mark Savage: A Changemaker Couple Lucia and Mark Savage have been supporting UnidosUS’s mission over the last 23 years. Before then, Mark was a civil rights litigator with Public Advocates, a San Francisco-based nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that fights poverty and racial discrimination. This is where the couple connected with UnidosUS, then NCLR (National Council of La Raza), which was a client in about 20 cases. From issues of child lead poisoning to universal phone services and multilingual access, among others, “What was significant was that NCLR was working on fun ..read more

Latino Voters & the 2024 Elections  Latinos are the second largest group of voting-age Americans and will play a pivotal role in this critical election year. Thanks to support from donors like you, UnidosUS’s Latino Vote Initiative (LVI) has launched several powerful tools and resources for voters and policymakers. In November, we debuted the first-of-its-kind Hispanic Electorate Data Hub to promote an accurate understanding of how and why Latinos vote the way they do. The national survey of Latino voters—conducted as part of our partnership with Mi Familia Vota— polled 3,037 eligible ..read more

UnidosUS and Mi Familia Vota recently released the most expansive poll of Latino voters in 2023, and among the findings is that nearly half (48%) of Latino voters now say that climate change is a serious problem that affects people’s lives. By Natalie Knight Griffin, Health Policy Intern In the United States, wildfires in the West, tornadoes in the Midwest, and hurricanes on the coasts have destroyed countless families’ homes and businesses. Since 2008, about 265 million people worldwide have been forced to leave their homes due to the devastation caused by increasing natural disasters, such a ..read more

Despite growing awareness, mental illness continues to be an unmet health need for many Latino individuals and families across the United States. By: Nahyr Morales Lugo, Health Policy Intern, UnidosUS Recent data shows a significant gap in access to mental health services between Latinos and white Americans. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, just 36.1% of Latino adults with a mental illness received related services in 2021, compared to 52.4% of white adults. Provider shortages reduce Latinos’ access to adequate mental healthcare. Latinos face high rat ..read more

This year, we recognized Representative Nanette Barragán, the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) and Congressman Joaquin Castro at #CapAwards24. On the evening of March 5, 2024, at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, UnidosUS hosted the 2024 Capital Awards ceremony. This annual event serves as a platform to honor advocates, public figures and elected leaders who tirelessly champion the cause of the Latino community. The Capital Awards were not just an evening of celebration – they were a reaffirmation of our collective commitment to building a more inclusive and equitable socie ..read more

Immigration by the Numbers is a series of timely, data-driven analyses of key immigration issues facing the Latino community and U.S. policymakers. By Cristobal Ramón, Viktor Olah, Laura Vazquez, and Gary Sang Last month, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released their Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 data, showing a reduction in net-backlogged applications[1] for the first time in over a decade. The backlog decreased by 15 percent as digitalization and bureaucratic improvements allowed the agency to process 10 million applications during FY 2023. USCIS accomplished this by using appropr ..read more

Immigration by the Numbers is a series of timely data-driven analyses of key immigration issues facing the Latino community and U.S. policymakers. By Cristobal Ramon and Viktor Olah The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released two reports in February 2024 that showed how immigrants – including recent arrivals – have strengthened the country’s economic performance. The HHS study, which assessed the fiscal impact of humanitarian migrants between 2005 and 2009, found that they generated $123.8 billion in federal, state, and local revenue. Th ..read more

Remarks by UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murguía on March 5, 2024, at the 2024 UnidosUS Capital Awards in Washington, DC. en español Welcome to the 2024 UnidosUS annual Capitol Awards Dinner! I must confess that this is one of my favorite nights of the year. For those of you who attended last year’s Capital Awards celebration on Valentine’s Day, I promise that I won’t embarrass you again tonight by pulling out the kiss-cam! Although I have to admit, I really enjoyed it. First and foremost, we’re here to honor the work of our incredible awardees but we also should celebrate the opportunity o ..read more