Advocate groups for immigrants are seeing increases in donations, volunteers, and plans to work together in the wake of President Donald Trump's actions to tackle the issue, according to USA Today.
The National Council of La Raza on Monday will change its name to UnidosUS,, Spanish for "United U.S." President Janet Murgula said the change was planned before Trump became president, but the new name fits the organization's strategy.
"It is a call to action for all Latinos, but it also signals a message for others to join us," Murgula told USA Today.
Immigrant advocacy groups found surges in support inside of a week from Trump's election and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said it got more than 400 calls from people offering to volunteer, and the group needed a coordinator to manage the requests, according to the report.
More attorneys joined with groups to handle immigration cases, such as the Florida Immigrant Coalition, which hired its first staff attorney, USA Today reports.
"We had to because there were too many calls coming in, too many people saying, 'I don't know where my husband is,' or 'I don't know where my wife is,'" Francesca Menes, the coalition's policy director, told USA Today.
"I have been at the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) litigating immigration cases for 25 years and this is the busiest I have ever been because of the sheer number of issues," attorney Lee Gelernt said, USA Today reports.
Lawrence Benito, the Illinois coalition's executive director, said the group gets $10,000 in a typical year, but has received $100,000 since Trump was elected, according to USA Today.
The ACLU usually gets around $4 million in online donations in one year. Since the election, it has brought in more than $80 million, USA Today reported.
"I can't point to an easier time to organize in recent history," Apolonio Morales, the Los Angeles immigrant coalition's political director said in USA Today.
The Latino community is becoming an economic power, according to a Latino Donor Collaborative study. The study shows the Latino community with an economic growth rate of 2.9 percent over five years, while the non-Latino rate of economic growth in the U.S. is 1.7 percent.
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