On a cold Monday morning, immigrants and immigrant rights’ advocates, funders and supporters alike braced for the oncoming storm as Donald Trump was inaugurated 47th president of the United States. After the parades, speeches, songs and salutes ended, President Trump returned once more to the Oval Office to issue a slate of executive orders. Having made anti-immigrant rhetoric a cornerstone of his campaign, it came as no surprise that at least a fifth of the orders centered on immigrants and immigration.
These included an order purporting to end birthright citizenship, which has been enshrined in the Constitution since the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, and was further affirmed when the Supreme Court ruled in 1898 that all children born in the U.S. to immigrants are citizens, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. Twenty-two states have since sued the Trump administration to block the order in what promises to be a lengthy legal battle.
As part of his other executive orders, Trump also declared a national emergency to allow the Department of Defense to deploy the military to the southern border, suspended the U.S. Refugee Admission Program, designated cartels and other transnational groups as global terrorist organizations, ordered federal agencies and state and local law enforcement officials to act as immigration officers, laid the groundwork to punish sanctuary cities, ordered the creation of a physical wall and other barriers along the border, eliminated the use of the CBP One app, which allowed migrants to request asylum, ended parole programs for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, and declared that migration at the southern border constitutes an “invasion.”
Philanthropic funding related to immigration surged during the first Trump administration, though it still represents only a small sliver of overall giving. According to data from Candid, between 2004 and 2016, 501(c)(3) funding for immigration totaled $2.1 billion. Compared with that 12-year period, funding spiked to $2.3 billion during Trump’s first four years in office alone. Interestingly, the ramp-up continued during the Biden administration, during which funding reached just over $3 billion. It remains to be seen whether that number will increase further now that Trump is back in office and building on his previous attacks.
The second Trump administration’s ultra-hardline policies will undermine much of what that grantmaking supported — a demonstration that national developments can cancel out years of patient local or issue-level philanthropic funding. Yet there’s still a lot that philanthropy can do to help immigrants. We’ve been writing about funders who support immigrants and refugees, ranging from those who support students, children and families, immigrant rights and legal services. The urgency of the moment calls for increased support not just from the funders who already support immigrants, but from those who may be new to this space, as well.
Rapid-response support can address urgent needs as they emerge
Philanthropic funders can consider allocating funding for rapid-response grantmaking, letting them move nimble support to address urgent issues as they emerge. Case in point, when the first Trump administration enacted its “zero tolerance” policy that separated families at the border, funders supported organizations like the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) to help pay bonds for migrants awaiting asylum, the Urban Institute noted.
Trump has made clear that mass deportations are on the docket. Rapid-response grants can be used to support organizations that provide direct legal assistance to immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. These include organizations like Immigrant Legal Defense, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and the International Refugee Assistance Project.
These types of grants can also be used to support human rights and legal organizations that file lawsuits on behalf of immigrants and work to end immigration enforcement practices that violate human rights. These include groups like the NAACP, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU, which has already sued the Trump administration for its attempt to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.
A 2020 report from the ACLU, Human Rights Watch and National Immigrant Justice Center found that detention centers during the first Trump administration were hotbeds of abuse and inhuman conditions. In several of his day-one executive orders this week, Trump called for the construction of more detention centers. Funders can support human rights organizations seeking to ensure abuses don’t take place in these places.
Another way funders can help is by supporting immigrant rights’ education. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), for example, conducts know-your-rights presentations in schools, community spaces, libraries and other public spaces. Just as grantmakers have funded civic educational efforts, so too can funders support educational resources for immigrants and help their distribution in person and online.
Regional funders can also provide crucial support at both the local and state levels, particularly in states like Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott has enacted stringent anti-immigrant policies, including authorizing police officers to arrest those suspected of being undocumented immigrants and ordering hospitals to question patients about their immigration status.
Funders can also support fact-checking to combat disinformation and misinformation around immigration. Despite data showing that immigrants, both documented and undocumented alike, are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens, President Trump has asserted that immigrants are committing violent crimes. Other misinformation includes the idea that immigrants are taking away jobs from Americans, that they don’t contribute to the economy and that noncitizens vote during elections. It is critical to combat mis- and disinformation more broadly, but doing so becomes especially urgent when it involves falsehoods about vulnerable populations who may be placed in greater danger.
“When misinformation is amplified by powerful politicians, it is no surprise that this rhetoric becomes reflected by the public,” wrote the Center for Law and Social Policy.
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Longer-term funder strategies to support immigrants
Equally important as rapid-response grants is funding long-term work to support immigrants and refugees. One of the biggest and most important strategies in this space is funding policy advocacy, especially advocacy for immigration reform.
Of course, given the current political climate, comprehensive immigration reform — as opposed to Trump’s crusade to halt as much immigration as possible — seems unlikely at the moment. The last time the U.S. passed immigration reform was during the Reagan administration in 1986. While some immigration policies have passed as parts of larger spending bills, and most substantive changes have come through executive orders like those Trump issued this week, comprehensive reform has stalled.
Change doesn’t happen overnight, though, and as such, funders should consider supporting policy advocacy efforts over the long term. The reality is that while Trump’s anti-immigration policies will extend over the next four years, it’s hard to know what’ll happen after that. Funders should consider a longer timeframe in which a backlash to Trump’s heavy-handed law-and-order agenda may swing the pendulum the other way and propel a more favorable government into power.
After all, the conservative Heritage Foundation found significant success in influencing Trump’s policy agenda, including his immigration policies, through its Project 2025. Those philanthropy-backed recommendations were developed in the hope Trump would win the election — not at all a sure bet given how close the popular vote was in 2024, Trump’s claims of a “mandate” aside.
If they’re looking for more tangible impact over the next four years, funders can also support longer-term efforts to improve the lives of immigrants. These include things like education, labor protections, access to quality healthcare, providing support for families, increasing affordable housing — things that ultimately benefit all Americans.
Another important long-term strategy is to support organizing and power-building among immigrants and their communities. While support for national organizations is critical, it’s also necessary for funders to support grassroots groups led by those most impacted. For example, in December, the Latino Community Foundation announced it was awarding grants to six organizations that work to protect Latino immigrant communities in California, where the foundation is based. The grants were made through the foundation’s Latino Power Fund, which is an initiative to “organize and build long-term support within Latino communities.”
Funders can also consider supporting narrative change efforts. This is a growing strategy among funders, and although it’s still unclear how effective these efforts are, they may be useful in countering the xenophobic and false narratives espoused by Trump, his administration and other conservative lawmakers.
This is a critical moment in U.S. history. Woven into Trump’s executive orders are hints of what may come. Declaring migration at the Southern border to be an “invasion,” ordering additional detention centers to be built, and directing federal agencies to “repeal, repatriate and remove” immigrants involved in the so-called invasion, including refugees: In tandem, these initial actions presage a chilling future. Funders must be prepared to take action against it.
“Considering the scale and imminence of this threat, philanthropy has a responsibility to act, and to act now,” wrote Grantmakers Concerned With Immigrants and Refugees in its own post offering recommendations for funders. “Protecting immigrant communities — and by extension, the fate of our multiracial democracy — will require a decisive and unwavering commitment from funders that take seriously the threat before us in this moment.”
