The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC) seeks to build community power through organizing and leadership development within immigrant communities, winning fair and humane public policies, providing legal services and educational workshops, and implementing nonpartisan civic engagement programs. Our 70+ member organizations lead our coalition and seek to uplift the voices of directly impacted immigrants to create change by and for our community.
CIRC has a track record of bringing about real change in Colorado and building grassroots power within immigrant communities. From passing in-state tuition, winning driver’s licenses for all, creating a statewide legal defense fund, ensuring ICE is locked out of our state data, and expanding health coverage to undocumented children and pregnant people - we can confidently say that Colorado has become more immigrant-friendly over the past 20 years as a result of our work. As the only immigrant rights organization with a statewide reach in Colorado, we have become a powerhouse of progress, not just for immigrants, but for all people residing in our state.
The U.S. immigration system is cruel, racist and hasn't been overhauled in over three decades. The immigrant population, especially the undocumented, are constantly under attack and suffer the most from lack of protection of their basic human rights - even though they represent 14% of the national population. Support for the immigrant rights movement, especially in the southwest and more rural areas, has not been responsive to the level of threats that we face. Barely 1% of all money granted by the largest U.S. foundations benefits immigrants and refugees and states like Colorado are often overlooked. We know that we can enact real change in our state for immigrant communities and we invite everyone to make a meaningful gift to support our work.
The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition is a statewide, membership-based coalition of immigrant, faith, labor, youth, community, business and ally organizations founded in 2002 to improve the lives of immigrants and refugees by making Colorado a more welcoming, immigrant-friendly state. CIRC seeks to build community power through organizing and leadership development within immigrant communities, winning fair and humane public policies, providing legal services and educational workshops, and implementing nonpartisan civic engagement programs.
In 2002, immigrant rights organizations united around the driver’s license public safety campaign and founded CIRC to be a unified statewide voice and movement to defend and advance justice for immigrants. During those years, CIRC’s top priorities were Raid Rapid Response and passing in-state tuition equity legislation.
For the last 20 years, CIRC has helped immigrant communities mobilize, organize, and build more just institutions. Thanks to our 70+ members, we have accomplished major wins for immigrant justice in Colorado. We launched the first statewide ICE abuse documentation hotline to collect data and testimonies, started working with Colorado Sheriffs in all 64 counties to end ICE detainers, repealed SB-90 (“show me your papers'' law), won driver’s licenses for all (SB-251), passed ASSET in-state tuition, and launched our Legal Services which assists hundreds of folks with DACA renewals and Legal Permanent Residents in becoming new citizens annually.
In 2021, we accomplished additional incredible and historic wins for our community, including the passage of our two priority bills: HB21-1194 to create an Immigration Legal Defense Fund, to ensure universal representation of immigrants in deportation proceedings, and SB21-131 to Protect Personal Identifying Information Kept By State, to ensure that ICE is locked out of our state data. In 2022, we led the passage of a bill that expands access to healthcare for undocumented children and pregnant people - Cover all Coloradans. Since then, we have been focusing our efforts on educating community members across the state and ensuring that they are aware of the newest pro-immigrant healthcare laws, including the Colorado Option, OmniSalud, and Cover all Coloradans
In 2024, CIRC focused on our priority issues of advancing affordable housing and expanding access to healthcare for all, regardless of immigration status. At the same time, we led the fight to defeat several anti-immigrant laws that would have had devastating impacts for immigrant communities in our state. You can read more in our 2024 legislative report: https://coloradoimmigrant.org/2024legislativereport/
At the center of all we do, we ensure that immigrant voices are uplifted, amplified, and at the forefront of community change efforts by building grassroots power within immigrant communities who then drive the change they want to see. Our members, the majority of whom are immigrant-led, are involved in every part of our campaigns, from strategy planning to decision-making, lobby meetings, communications, and celebrations.
CIRC's constituency consists of organizations that work with Colorado's immigrant and refugee population of approximately 497,105; of which 55.3% come from Latin America (49% from Mexico), 21.3% from Asia, 13.8% from Europe, and 5.1% from Africa. Of the 497,105, approximately 200,000 to 250,000 are undocumented, and make up the majority of the workforce in construction, service and agricultural industries. Additionally, Colorado has a foreign-born naturalized citizen population of 177,346.
Organization name
Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition
other names
CIRC
2002
Tax id (EIN)
73-1675486
Category
Civil Rights, Social Action & Advocacy
Organization Size
Large Organization
Address
Denver - Main Office 2525 W. Alameda Ave.CO, US