UFW FOUNDATION

The UFW Foundation has identified serious challenges: 1) increased immigration enforcement that targets constituents in hard-to-reach regions of the country where there is little, if any, credible legal or advocacy infrastructure, 2) farm worker protections won in the past that continue to be threatened, such as, pesticide regulations and protections in the H-2A guestworker program that could result in a huge influx of unprotected guestworkers, and 3) DACA recipients face the administration's rescission of the program, while farm workers and other immigrants continue to lack access to legal status; 4) Comprehensive Immigration Reform; 5) Access to healthcare for immigrant, rural communities

Community Outreach and organizing
Advocacy
Immigration Legal Services
Innovation through Technology
National Expansion
Emergency Relief Program
Workers' Rights

The UFW Foundation has Office of Legal Access Programs (OLAP) Recognition and Accreditation, (formerly BIA) with staff members in each office who are OLAP accredited and able to provide immigration legal representation. These staff members assist clients with Naturalization, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Family Visa Petitions, U-VISA and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) visas, and Consular Processing. The UFW Foundation (UFWF) is the fastest growing non-profit immigration legal services provider; it has the second largest number of OLAP Accredited Representatives in California (22) and third largest number in the nation. Currently the UFWF has 6 Recognized sites, Los Angeles, Oxnard, Salinas, Phoenix, Bakersfield, and Fresno. Additionally, the UFWF has 22 accredited representatives; 18 of which are partial with 4 fully accredited. Additionally, the UFW Foundation has a long history of organizing and advocacy.

MILESTONES
The UFW Foundation responded to the enormous need for health, financial, and economic assistance among farm worker and low-income worker communities. In addressing the needs, we provided:
• public health education and interventions in California and expanded on-the-ground efforts to Georgia, Michigan, Washington and Arizona.
• $23 million in emergency relief assistance payments to farm workers and their families in need;
• 237,996 meals, 142,727 emergency food boxes, over 2 million face masks/protective equipment to low-income immigrant/farm worker communities.
• 40,307 vaccinations through community-based and community-wide events.

Beyond direct assistance, we were called to advocate and act on issues of concern at the national level. Farm workers support the US economy and are responsible for keeping people across the country and the world fed. Accordingly, we:
• Advocated for the establishment of an historic U.S. Department of Agriculture $655MM financial assistance allotment for farm and food workers negatively affected by the pandemic.
• Secured a $97.8MM USDA grant to administer this assistance nationwide, in coordination with several other organizations, to provide $600 to each eligible farm/food worker.
• Advocated for immigration reform and an equitable pathway to legalization for farm workers through the successful passage of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act in the US House of Representatives in 2021.
• Met several times with Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh regarding farm worker labor conditions and the exploitation of immigrant workers, particularly through the H-2A guest worker program.
• Joined with a coalition of labor, immigrant, and human rights organizations and urged the Biden Administration to conduct a thorough investigation of the H-2A guest worker program after the exposure of human trafficking, slavery, and money laundering abuses in the Georgia Blooming Onion case.