The lives your Giving Tuesday donation can touch.

They are a fast-growing part of our community. The Mid-Hudson Valley, which includes Ulster County, had more than 20,000 undocumented residents in 2018. Between 2000 and 2019 the broader category of foreign-born residents grew from 5% to 12% in Kingston and also is growing in the Ulster County towns of Shandaken and Wawarsing and the villages of Ellenville and New Paltz , making up 10% or more of the population in 2019.

Many come from Central America seeking opportunity, refuge, and stability. They come to escape violence, corruption, and gangs. They come because the climate crisis has made farming impossible. They come because centuries of colonialism, oligarchy, and resource exploitation destroyed their economies.

Most are working and serving our community. Roughly 70 percent of immigrants in the Hudson Valley are employed and they make up about 16 percent of the workforce. In 2019, for example, there were 8,000 domestic workers (housekeepers, cleaners, nannies, and home care aides) in the Mid-Hudson Valley; more than 60% were undocumented.

They take on essential jobs in agriculture, construction, food processing and serving, landscaping, and the like. This work is often poorly paid, precarious, demanding, and dangerous. And, because of their status, workers are vulnerable to exploitation.

Most are not eligible for unemployment and are almost always left out of programs and services available to other workers. That’s why UIDN and our allies fought for the Excluded Workers Fund. UIDN continues to promote the expansion of benefits and works to help families identify and apply to federal, state and local programs. Such assistance can help families be successful in their new home.