Children of color are significantly more likely to be reported for allegations of abuse and neglect, despite the vast majority of those allegations being unfounded or unsubstantiated. LGBTQ parents of color are even more likely to lose custody of their children through the child welfare system. Even when families are not separated by the system, unnecessary investigation and surveillance of families by the system harms children by disrupting family dynamics and stability. Mandated reporters of possible child abuse and neglect are currently required to report families impacted by poverty. NCLR supports AB 2085, which would change the requirements for California mandated reporters of possible child neglect to reduce the number of families unnecessarily swept into the child welfare system simply based on poverty or bias.

NCLR supports the upEND movement to end the current child welfare system and replace it with a system that focuses on keeping children safe with their families, rather than on separating and regulating families of color. The existing child welfare system disproportionately surveils and separates Black, Native, and LGBTQ families, as well as families whose members have disabilities, causing deep and lasting harm to children and families. Racism is so deeply rooted in child welfare systems’ history, policies, and practices that they are not easily modified or revised. Rather, the system as we know it has to be ended in order to ensure racial equity. The upEND movement was begun by the Center for the Study of Social Policy.

On April 25, 2016, NCLR submitted comments supporting the Department of Labor’s proposed rule requiring federal contractors to provide paid sick leave for workers to take time off when they or a family member is sick.

The FAMILY Act would establish a national paid leave insurance program. Specifically, it would provide eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of partial income to address their own serious health condition, including pregnancy or childbirth; to deal with the serious health condition of a parent, spouse, domestic partner or child; to care for a new child; and/or specific military care-giving and leave purposes.

President Trump signed SESTA/FOSTA into law in April 2018. The law expanded civil and criminal liability for online platforms by expanding liability for platforms used by third parties to engage in sex trafficking. It also created a new federal crime promotion or facilitation of prostitution, which could include communities collecting and distributing information about violence, connecting with clients for the ability to screen or workers directly sharing safety techniques on-line.

NCLR worked with sex worker rights, LGBTQ, anti-trafficking, and technology organizations to oppose the bill. While NCLR opposes trafficking, we believed sex workers who warned they would be harmed by the law, because it would cause them to be kicked off-line and forced back on the streets where its more dangerous to trade sex.

During the 2018 re-authorization of the Farm bill, House Republicans passed a version that made cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP aka “food stamps”). NCLR and other LGBTQ groups joined anti-hunger and poverty groups to fight the cuts. Congress ultimately passed a bipartisan farm bill, which was signed by President Trump, that protected SNAP.

According to 2017 data from the Center for American Progress, LGBTQ people and their families were 2.3 times more likely to participate in SNAP than were non-LGBTQ people, with 22.7% of their nationally-representative LGBTQ survey respondents reporting using SNAP, a statistically significant difference when compared to non-LGBTQ respondents. Among LGBTQ people with a disability, 41.2% reported receiving SNAP.

In late-2017 to early-2018, NCLR led the LGBTQ coalition advocating for the passage of the DREAM Act to provide permanent legal protections for undocumented people who arrived in the U.S. at an early age (“Dreamers”). In June 2019, The House passed the DREAM and Promise Act, which provides a pathway for citizenship for Dreamers and holders of Temporary Protected Status. The Senate has not voted on the bill.

NCLR supports the “SESTA/FOSTA Examination of Secondary Effects for Sex Workers Study Act,” or the “SAFE SEX Workers Study Act.” The bill requires a federal study on how losing access to online platforms impacts the health and safety of people in the commercial sex trade.

In 2018, Congress passed SESTA/FOSTA, which vastly expanded the civil and criminal liability of websites for hosting information related to the sex trade. In response, dozens of websites closed, displacing sex workers who utilized those websites to earn a living in order to stay housed, fed and safe. The SAFE SEX Workers Study Act seeks to understand the collateral consequences of the SESTA/FOSTA and other measures to shutdown online platforms.

On April 1, 2019 NCLR sent joint comments opposing USDA’s proposal to modify the time limit waiver standards for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs).

The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act makes would make needed reforms to the U.S. immigration system, including ending mandatory detention, ensuring that only those who are a threat to the community are detained and creating a presumption of release, establishing a presumption that vulnerable individuals–including LGBTQ individuals, young people, and victims of crimes–should be placed in community-based supervision programs rather than detention facilities, removing the minimum bond amount of $1,500 for release, requiring immigration judges to consider an individual’s ability to pay when setting a bond, and other changes.