A $500,000 grant from the Ford Foundation will support a new initiative by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) to create momentum for comprehensive immigration reform, including through advocacy skill-building workshops for Latino leaders and organizations around the country.
Ann Schaffer, director of AJC’s Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Center for American Pluralism, said the grant recognizes AJC’s long commitment to comprehensive reform of immigration laws.
“Our goal is to encourage a civil and informed national discourse about immigration that will lead to policies reflecting America’s fundamental commitment to democratic values and human rights and also respond effectively to our nation’s national and economic security needs,” said Schaffer, who will direct the yearlong project.
The funds will support a series of roundtable discussions with a broad spectrum of stakeholders in the immigration debate to seek common ground. The Ford Foundation grant will also fund advocacy skills-building for Latino groups at workshops in Arizona, Chicago, Houston and New Jersey.
Immigration is one of the more contentious issues facing the country right now, which helps explain why the Ford Foundation is committing up to $30 million in funding to support immigrant rights over the next 18 months, according to the New York Times.
The second-largest philanthropic institution in the country, the Ford Foundation has been refocusing its efforts on eight core issues as part of a two-year overhaul initiated by its new leader, Luis A. Ubiñas.
Under the rubric of human rights, the foundation is directing support for organizations engaged in immigrant rights advocacy, including efforts to secure immigration reform that addresses the realities of migration in countries that migrants leave as well as those to which they move.
