Congress is racing to pass a budget reconciliation package that will cut funding from Medicaid, SNAP, and other social safety net programs and instead fund tax cuts for billionaires and supercharge deportations. This week the House of Representatives will vote on its package. Join us and demand that Congress protect vital government-funded assistance programs instead of slashing them.
Southeast Asian American (SEAAs) families are part of the many immigrant families afraid to send their children to school because of the increased immigration enforcement in our communities. Increasing financial support for anti-immigrant policies will cause even more chaos, fear, and family disruptions in our communities.
The impact is particularly stark for SEAAs. Approximately 15,000 SEAAs currently live in the United States with deportation orders, despite having already served their sentence, and often without due process. Increasing numbers are being detained and deported, tearing their families apart.
The reconciliation bill would fund these harmful actions by slashing programming that ensures millions of children have access to food and health insurance. There are over 3 million SEAAs who live in the United States today, and many within our communities rely on essential programs, such as Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, and Social Security Income to:
Provide lifesaving care to families;
Access mental health and medication; and
Afford to feed their families despite the rising cost of groceries.
Cutting support for these programs would have a substantial impact on SEAAs. One in four Vietnamese American children depend on the national free lunch program, just one indicator of the wide-reaching impact federal education and food programs have on SEAA youth. SNAP participation rates among SEAAs are also significant: Hmong (28%), Cambodian (24%), Laotian (18%), and Vietnamese (14%). And nearly one in five SEAAs live at the Medicaid poverty threshold. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has expanded health coverage significantly for our communities, and cutting ACA tax credits would reverse that progress.
Take Action: Contact your Representative today
Take 3 minutes and tell your Representative to support our children and families by protecting our social safety net programs rather than funneling billions of dollars to increase attacks on immigrants.
