Declaración para la comunidad inmigrante sobre el coronavirus
Haz clic para leer en español.
Dear Immigrant Community:
We are in a confusing, uncertain, and unprecedented moment with the global coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Every day there is news about new cases, business closings, curfews, and other restrictions that affect our lives.
We must not panic, hoard resources that others also need, or spread misinformation. However, it is essential that we take this situation seriously to protect ourselves and our community.
The reality is the immigrant community is extremely vulnerable during this pandemic.
Until now, many of us have not been able to stop going to work. We also face various barriers to taking the best health precautions right now, including lack of access to health insurance, lack of information in our languages, and the ongoing fear of being detained or deported.
We are also worried for our families in our home countries, who are also living this global crisis — the daily pain of distance and borders is becoming even greater.
A public health crisis like this one reveals and worsens the profound inequalities that harm the 11 million undocumented immigrants every day.
We are part of an economy that expects us to work despite imminent risk of exposure. That expects us to stay quiet about massive layoffs that are already happening. As Cosecheros, we know that this country depends on our labor during and after this national crisis.
They want us to risk our lives while denying us medical care, pay for lost hours, and continuing to threaten us with ICE every day. It is not the moment to put our heads down and just do what this country expects of us. In the face of this pandemic, we must continue demanding dignity and respect. We must empower ourselves with information and preventative actions that fight against the idea that we should put ourselves at risk, just because we are undocumented workers.
Just as we organize in Cosecha to fight for permanent protection for the community, now we will organize to protect our health and support the community during these times.
The most important thing right now is “social distancing” or quarantine.
The most important thing right now is “social distancing” or quarantine, which means that everyone says home and commits to only leaving the house for essential reasons (buying food or medicine, going to work if absolutely necessary). A concerning fact about COVID-19 is that a seemingly healthy person can still have the virus without showing any symptoms and pass it to other people without knowing or meaning to cause harm.
For this reason, practicing social distancing and quarantine is an act of love and solidarity for the community and reduces everyone’s risk of exposure. In many parts of the world this practice has successfully slowed the spread of the virus.
In countries with high numbers of deaths and infections, they have accepted that not taking these steps earlier was a mistake. By taking this situation seriously and staying home, we protect our families and we tell each other that the our undocumented community’s health matters, that we are human beings who deserve to be healthy and live.
For many of us, to be in quarantine and not go to work means not having an income to sustain our families — it will seem unthinkable, even though we know it is necessary for our wellbeing. But the reality is…
In the coming days and weeks there will be many rapid changes to our daily lives.
- Many states are already closing all businesses, prohibiting people from gathering in groups, and implementing curfews.
- It is possible that entire families in our community will lose essential sources of income and need help to be able to support themselves, take care of their children, and pay rent.
- Many others will become exposed and sick from the virus and live with fear around whether they should go to the hospital since they do not have insurance and fear that ICE will find them.
The immigrant community and all workers in this country must work together to find new ways of supporting ourselves under ever-changing emergency conditions. We will have to fight to take care of each other, to demand the resources and protections that we need, and above all stay connected, not isolated, in these difficult times.
We commit 100% to this work.
With love, solidarity, and hope,
The leaders of Movimiento Cosecha
The leaders of Movimiento Cosecha
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