ALLENTOWN, Pa. — With cuts to Medicaid and SNAP programs on the line, Latino leaders addressed how it could impact residents in the Lehigh Valley — specifically those in the Latino community.
Monday's community conversation was organized by theUnidosUS Action Fund — the largest Latino civil rights organization in the U.S.
The nonprofit organization, based in Washington. D.C, held the bilingual event at M Studios in ArtsWalk.
They were joined by local Latino leaders including Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk; Allentown City Council Vice President Cynthia Mota; AJ Suero, chairman of the Greater Lehigh Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Yamelisa Jimenez Taveras, founder and director of Unidos Inc.; and Victor Martinez, owner of La Mega Radio.
The group also touched on immigration, just hours after an announcement by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to offer $1,000 for undocumented immigrants to self-deport.
'Deeply affecting communities'
In the coming weeks, the U.S. House is expected to vote on a bill that would slash funds to Medicaid, which serves over 72 million people around the country, and SNAP, which serves over 42 million people.
Locally, 75,000 children benefit from Medicaid and SNAP local leaders said.
"Out of those 33,000 are Latino children; those children are under the threat of losing their medical health insurance through Medicaid. The threat of that is huge," said Carmen Feliciano, UnidosUS Action Fund's vice president of policy and advocacy.
"Preventive medicine is having healthy children, and it's being able to provide food on the table. One of eight Latinos has gone into debt because of nutrition and the cost of food."
Rising cost of medicines, insulin
Jimenez Taveras said the Unidos Foundation, which she founded in 2019 to provide emergency response kits to residents, along with a food pantry, may lose its funding due to cuts to the AmeriCorps programs.
"Our very own organization is being forced to possibly face ceasing all of our operations after Humankind Day on May 31 because AmeriCorps provided us with a full-time program director," she said. "If that person is not in our organization, we will no longer have a staff.
"This loss not only affects us, but it affects hundreds of families that we serve every single year."
Jimenez Taveras also addressed the proposed Medicaid cuts.
"Let's be clear, it's going to affect our communities, the marginalized, the uninsured, the undocumented — the overlooked who are paying this price," she said.
"We have neighbors that can't afford their insulin, and this is something that I know greatly because I'm a Type 1 diabetic. Parents who are forced to choose between paying for rent or feeding their children every day, and nonprofits like ours are stretched beyond our capacity. We're trying to hold the entire safety net with very little to offer but hope."
Swing states, Latino vote
UnidosUS Action Fund Executive Director Rafael Collazo and Feliciano held the event in Allentown as part of a national tour to swing states, encouraging people to speak out against the proposed cuts to federal programs like Medicaid and SNAP.
"Regardless of who they voted for in November, Latino voters made it very clear by their vote, by their attitude, by the polling, that their economic anxiety post-COVID and post the economic crisis of a generation ago, are still very present," Collazo said.
"From the cost of basic necessities, groceries, housing, and other critical needs of the Latino community, they still feel that economic pinch."
Collazo cited a recent poll by UnidosUS that revealed 60% of Latinos in the U.S. feel that the cost of living is still too high.
A 2023 report from the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley found that in Lehigh County, 42% of households were cost-burdened and struggling to afford the basics in 2021.
In Northampton County, the same study reported that 37% of households faced similar cost burdens.
"They are telling us that their wages and economic opportunities are not matching, and they believe, regardless of how they voted in November, that the current Trump administration is not addressing their needs," Collazo said.
That same poll revealed that 59% of Latinos nationwide disapprove of the direction of the administration of President Donald Trump.
"The current proposals in Congress that are moving forward rapidly through the budget reconciliation process call for cuts over $800 billion to Medicaid and SNAP, and taking health care away from our families, literally taking food off the table of our children — especially a high percentage of children in the Lehigh Valley," Collazo said.
While immigration is not a top concern of Latinos nationally, Collazo said Puerto Rican leaders have reached out to UnidosUS, expressing fear over recent changes in immigration policies.
"The Puerto Rican community, which we have a large amount of in the Lehigh Valley, is feeling anxiety and feeling threatened by this Draconian approach to immigration," he said.
Pennsylvania is home to the fourth-largest Puerto Rican population in the U.S.
In Allentown, 55% of the population identifies as Latino, primarily from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
'My children live in fear'
In April, Trump signed an executive order that directs administration officials to create a list of cities and states that have not complied with federal immigration laws.
Trump's list is expected to include sanctuary cities such as Philadelphia and Chicago.
Allentown, which passed a "Welcoming City" measure in February, could end up on the list for its practice of not using city funding or police to enforce federal immigration laws.
Despite the city measures, children are fearful in schools, Mota said.
Mota, the first Dominican-American woman to serve on Allentown City Council, opened up about children's anxiety and her son's plan to hide with his sister in an alleyway if he was approached by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The siblings are both U.S. citizens.
"I received a text from my daughter a couple of months ago. She's very quiet, and she said she didn't want to go to school because she felt it wasn't safe and that immigration was going to show up," she said.
Mota said her son felt that immigration officers would single him out because of his darker complexion.
"I told him, 'Do you guys understand that you belong in this country? Everyone is scared at their school. And he said when [ICE] comes, he will be the first one they take.
"My children are not alone. There are children across the country living in fear. This is not America. We have to make sure that no children will no longer be in fear, and we have to do better by this nation."
Vote, ways to advocate
Feliciano said the nonprofit has reached out to U.S. Rep. Ryan McKenzie, R-Lehigh Valley, in hopes that he would vote against cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
The freshman congressman has said he would only vote for cuts that protect what he calls the "traditional Medicaid population."
Mackenzie also has said he would support rolling back Medicaid expansion created through the Affordable Care Act, creating work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents and revoking coverage for illegal immigrants.
Feliciano urged residents to reach out to Mackenzie's office and encourage him to resist cuts.
"There's such a slim margin in the House of Representatives between Republicans and Democrats that we only need four like-minded Republicans to vote against this bill to stop it," she said.
With Pennsylvania's May 20 primary election two weeks away, Jimenez Taveras reminded residents to vote.
" We hold more power than we think," she said. "If you are not registered to vote today, May 5 is the last day to register before the primaries, so make sure that you do that. Our voices are our power, and our vote is our weapon."
