Pueblo-Powered Vaccine Advocacy
By John-Michael Torres, February 25, 2022
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LUPE members mobilized to end vaccine discrimination against immigrants and deliver life-saving care to remote and low-income communities in the Rio Grande Valley.

Yesterday marks one year since UTRGV listened to our demand and stopped denying COVID-19 vaccines to undocumented immigrants.

Since then, LUPE has mobilized to delivered life-saving care to remote and low-income colonias throughout the RGV.

Here's how we did it:

Vacunas Para Todos

Whether we’re Black, white or brown, when it comes to our health, we all want to make sure we can prevent, treat or recover from illness or injury without fearing we’ll go bankrupt.

But today certain politicians and their greedy lobbyists have sold off our health to the highest bidder, letting insurance corporations, hospital chains and pharma lobbyists rake in record profits. They have shamed and blamed Black and brown Texans and new immigrants while they cut funding to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

Colonia residents have struggled the most. With many excluded from legal residency and citizenship, they are struggling to find the care they need while navigating low wages and underfunded and neglected neighborhoods.

But LUPE members know how to overcome adversity and injustice. Colonia residents joined together with city residents to push back and end UTRGV’s denial of COVID-19 vaccines to undocumented immigrants. Together, we knocked on hundreds of doors and delivered accurate information about the vaccine to colonia residents and low-income city residents. And we brought mobile clinics to remote colonia neighborhoods.

We can join across race and background to demand those who govern in our name deliver proven solutions through a public system that can ensure the care all of us need. By joining together, we can make this a place where all of our families can get the care we need at a price we can afford.

Fuel our pueblo-powered healthy advocacy. Donate to LUPE today.


John-Michael Torres is Communications Coordinator for La Unión del Pueblo Entero. More posts


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