The National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) is a left-of-center pressure group which aims to increase the rate at which immigrants to the United States, including those present in the country illegally, are granted citizenship, government benefits, and the ability to vote. NPNA also aims to increase the political influence of immigrants by connecting them to legal, educational, and activism resources with the explicit goal of left-of-center “baseand (sic) power building.” In order to bolster Americans’ acceptance of its agenda, the organization promotes narratives in society which create an idealized image of immigration into the United States, with a particular emphasis on ethnic minority groups. The NPNA openly describes itself as an “implementation vehicle” for the agenda of “leading immigrant advocacy groups” and takes partial credit for helping pressure President Barack Obama to implement the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that granted legal status to certain unlawfully present immigrants. ^[1]

In addition to its efforts to loosen and prevent the enforcement of immigration laws, the NPNA advances a left-of-center environmentalist agenda, claiming that man-made climate change is a major cause of migration. The organization pushes for its supporters to engage in what it calls “climate justice” in addition to its immigration activism. ^[2]

Background

The National Partnership for New Americans began to organize informally in 2008. That year, it initiated a pressure campaign to allow immigrants living under the poverty line to go through the naturalization process without paying any standard administrative fees. The organization was officially formed in 2012. Two years later, it was able to secure the support of authorities in New York City and Los Angeles on an initiative to help immigrants in their cities through the citizenship process. Citi Community Development, a charitable organization affiliated with the Citigroup financial services corporation, also backed the initiative, which involves municipalities using taxpayer dollars to fund citizenship programs. In 2015, representatives of NPNA participated in a meeting at the White House, where they presented their agenda to Obama administration officials. ^[3]

During the Trump administration, the NPNA escalated its pressure campaign to accelerate the naturalization process for immigrants while also launching an attack against efforts to control the flow of refugees and undocumented border crossers into communities across the United States. In 2020, the organization launched New American Voters (NAV) – another activist group which aims to register newly-naturalized citizens to vote. NPNA states that the goal of NAV is to “activate” immigrants as a political bloc, and claims that the new organization contributed to record ethnic minority participation during the 2020 election cycle. The following year, the NPNA succeeded in getting a “New Deal for New Americans Act” bill introduced in Congress. According to the organization, this legislation would require the federal government to commit “significant” taxpayer funds to enabling the continued inflow and legalization of immigrants and refugees into the country. 2021 also marked the launch of the New American Youth Leadership Council, an NPNA project to train pro-immigration activists and community organizers. ^[4]

Programs and Impact

The New American Voters (NAV) project pushes for granting citizenship to the 1 million or more immigrants that it claims are eligible for naturalization and for registering new citizenship recipients to vote. NAV connects immigrants to legal services and organizes activism campaigns to loosen immigration laws. Like National Partnership for New Americans, NAV ties the drive for mass citizenship to the expansion of the left-of-center electorate, identifying citizens of foreign origin as a “voting block (sic).” To achieve this, NAV committed to helping naturalize two million immigrants in time for the 2022 midterm election cycle, and the organization touts the fact that “a small increase in turnout” can “sway the outcome of national, state, and local elections.” ^{[5] [6]}

The Family Protection Network is NPNA’s legal service for pushing back against immigration enforcement campaigns. NPNA claims that its lawyers and advisors serve more than 320,000 potential immigration law violators across 37 states every year. ^[7]

Cities for Citizenship is a collaborative project between the NPNA and more than 100 cities and counties to devote more taxpayer funds to citizenship programs. Since its inception, the mayors of New York City, Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California have been the co-chairs and primary proponents of the initiative, which has expanded into “Cities and Counties for Citizenship.” The NPNA has also launched a $5 million “America is Home” grant program through the initiative, offering up to $40,000 a year to local governments and community organizing groups to facilitate their push for mass naturalization of non-citizens. ^{[8] [9]}

The New American Youth Leadership Council is an activist training program which the NPNA launched in 2021. The organization claims that since its inception, the program has prepared more than 100 activists who went on to collectively perform more than 1,700 hours of pro-immigration organizing. ^[10]

In April 2022, the NPNA announced that it would be partnering with the multinational financial giant Goldman Sachs and the migrant resettlement organization Welcome.US to raise funds for sponsoring refugees fleeing the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. ^[11]

In total, the NPNA claims that its policy advocacy and legal services have contributed to the naturalization of more than 250,000 immigrants since its founding. ^[12]

Leadership

Nicole Melaku has been the executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans since 2020. She has an extensive track record of left-of-center immigration and ethnic minority activist leadership, having previously worked as the executive director of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, as a program director at the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado, and for Rights for All People, another Colorado-based left-of-center pressure group that prioritizes the interests of immigrants. ^[13]

Joshua Hoyt is the now-retired founding executive director of the NPNA. He currently sits on the board of the American Business Immigration Coalition, a network of current and former private-sector executives who push for increased immigration into the United States to benefit business. ^{[14] [15]}

Nancy Flores has been the deputy director of the NPNA since 2019. She was previously the operations director of Voces de la Frontera, a pressure group based in Wisconsin which opposes immigration enforcement efforts, especially the deportation of illegal aliens, and prevent local authorities from coordinating with federal immigration agencies. ^[16]

Sarah Mesick has been the director of programs at the NPNA since 2015. She previously worked for several other left-of-center immigration and ethnic minority activist groups, including the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Latino Communities United in Service. Mesick received a master’s degree in social work from Loyola University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and Spanish studies. ^[17]

Supporters and Funders

The National Partnership for New Americans touts its collaboration with the authorities of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and numerous other cities with large immigrant populations or a perceived need for immigrants. ^[18] The organization has received grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the personal philanthropic vehicle of the billionaire Microsoft founder and his former wife, and the Mariam Assefa Fund, a left-of-center “impact investing” organization. ^{[19] [20]} Since April 2022, the NPNA has also collaborated with the global investment firm Goldman Sachs to help bring refugees from Ukraine into the United States. ^[21]