Grantee Spotlight - Florida Immigration Coalition
Florida Immigration Coalition (FLIC) is a statewide coalition of more than 65 member organizations and over 100 allies working to protect Florida immigrants. One of the grant partners in our Healthy Democracy Action Fund, Florida Immigration Coalition supports organizations that range from LGBTQ advocacy, labor unions, women’s rights, immigrant rights, and faith-based, because immigrants are part of all of these communities.
“The attack on immigrants has gotten to the point that it feels like we are never going to have enough people to help us and support our communities,” says Executive Director Tessa Petit. “In Florida, we have a lot of protection work to do.”
Florida Immigrant Rights Coalition (FLIC)
FLIC was founded in 2004; its sister 501c4 organization FLIC Votes was created in 2015 to address the reality that immigration is a political issue that needs a political response. The FLIC team began doing electoral organizing to encourage Black, brown and Latino communities to vote for immigration champions.
Some of the impactful work FLIC has engaged in includes:
Launching a civic engagement continuum plan to support base-building year-round
Growing their capacity with a permanent political director and field director
Canvassing in Miami County in the 2022 electoral season for pro-immigration candidates
Advancing a positive narrative of immigrants in Florida and debunking harmful myths is an essential part of their work, so FLIC is investing in digital strategy and message testing to support a progressive agenda. They are also careful to not treat immigrants as a monolith, recognizing the different countries, languages, and values.
In the next year, FLIC plans to intensify their New American voters campaign to engage the nearly 800,000 legal, permanent residents in Florida by helping them through the naturalization process and registering them to vote once they become U.S. citizens. They are also working on a Driver’s License for All campaign.
To learn more about FLIC, visit floridaimmigrant.org.