Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition

Advocacy Priorities

PICC’s mission centers on advocating for pro-immigrant and pro-refugee policies at the local, state, and federal levels.

Every two years PICC member organizations come together to choose the organization’s issue and campaign priorities. These priorities guide PICC’s choices on what policies to focus on and what campaigns to support.

In June 2019, PICC members chose three issues as the core advocacy priorities for the following two years:

  • Education Justice: Ensuring that immigrant and refugee students have access to safe and welcoming schools that address their unique needs. This includes supporting passage of tuition equity policies, language access, and fair and adequate funding for schools.
  • Enforcement Resistance: Fighting back against criminalization of immigrant communities and the deportation machine by supporting innovative organizing strategies and passing policies separating criminal and immigration enforcement.
  • Federal Immigration Policy: Promoting just and humane federal immigration policies.

PICC members also chose two priority campaigns that PICC will actively support:

  • Driving PA Forward: Advocating for fair access to driver licenses for all residents of Pennsylvania, regardless of immigration status.
  • Shut Down Berks: Advocating to close the Berks Family Detention Center and end family detention in Pennsylvania and nationally.

PICC also monitors proposals targeting immigrant and refugee communities at the local, state, and federal level and coordinates collective defense to ensure that these proposals do not become law.