With the Trump administration reduces budgets and threaten to revoke tax exemption status For non -profit organizations, certain social justice organizations in Southern California have entered a defensive squatting, hoping to wait for the storm of passage.
They do not openly fight the sections of President Trump's program. Some have rubbed their websites such as “equity”, “inclusion” and “transgender”. Others have been informed that they should abandon the thanks for the land – proclamations paying tribute to the indigenous peoples who were the first human inhabitants of this region.
But other local non -profit organizations intend to fight. They criticized Trump's policies. They refused suggestions to modify their mission statements. They went to court. And one, giant St. John's Community Health – which has provided care for the region's working class and to immigrants for 60 years – launches a campaign to call the Republicans of the Congress which, according to them, allow Trump's budget cuts which, according to them, will paralyze health care for the poor.
The venerable system of health clinics, based in South Los Angeles, joined around 10 other non-profit organizations on Thursday in the launch of a media campaign which will focus on half a dozen districts in the American chamber where republican legislators supported the president's initial budget plan.
The campaign of the newly created health health action fund will promise the theme “Medicaid Matters for me”. The organization plans to spend $ 2 million in the coming weeks to concentrate petitions, telephone banks, social media and radio advertisements on six GOP legislators across the country, telling them that their voters do not support the reductions in the main federal program for poor and disabled.
The Chamber and the Senate controlled by the Republicans approved a budgetary framework of Trump which provides 880 billion dollars in 10 years operations supervised by the Chamber's energy and trade committee. Trump and other Republicans insist that Medicaid will not have to be cut. But the non -partisan Budgetary office of the congress does not agreeSaying that the desired savings can only be made by reducing Medicaid.
The new campaign to trigger these cups was organized by St. John's Health, based in Los Angeles, and its Chairman and chief executive officer, Jim Mangia.
“The Medicaid Cups proposed by the Republicans and President Trump would be devastating for the health of low-income families in the United States,” said Mangia, who led St. John's for a quarter of a century in an interview. “There are tens of millions of people who depend on Medicaid and, in California, Medi-Cal, for their basic health care. To reduce it, to finance tax lounges for billionaires is a perversion of what this country is supposed to be. ”
Mangia and her board of directors said they understood that their sprawling health care organization, with more than 20 locations in South California, could be targeted for calling the president and his budget.
“Our posture is to fight,” said Mangia. “Many community health centers have scratched their websites and have removed words like” trans “and” African-American “from their websites. We are not going to do it. We are not going to erase the people we serve. ”
The leaders of non -profit organizations which serve the poor, immigrants and the LGBTQ + community have embarked on intense conversations for weeks on how to respond to Trump and his policies, which are explicitly aiming to reduce services to some of these populations.
The GOP representative, David Valadao, represents a district of the Central Valley where almost two thirds of the residents are based on Medicaid.
(IRFAN KHAN / LOS Angeles Times)
When Trump said last week that he could start trying to revoke the non -profit status of certain groups, anxiety among the agencies made a ramp at a new summit, said Geoff Green, Managing Director of Callofitswhich represents thousands of organizations with a tax exemption status.
“There have been financial stress and budget cuts before,” said Green. “But now it is not only financial stress, it is the direct targeting of their very existence and the challenges of values that are at the heart of many of their work.”
Managers of small organizations, in particular, do not think they have power or money to bring the Trump administration to court. Others, representative of immigrants, fear that their leaders or their customers will be intended for expulsion if they protest publicly.
“For some people in this community, it is like a sort of change in code,” said a framework for a non -profit organization of social justice, which refused to be appointed. “They could change certain terms on their websites, but that will not change their mission. They want to avoid conflicts or attacks, so that they can get out of the other end and do the right job. ”
In a case, a non -profit organization refused to receive a prize sponsored by a member of the California legislative assembly, because the organization feared that the price attracts unwanted attention to its service to immigrants.
“In the end, it is a question of protecting the most vulnerable from us,” said the executive of social justice. “Some organizations have more privileges, they have more resources. They can afford to go to court. They can be more daring. “
Public lawyer is among law firms of public interest whose Trump administration has threatened with termination. The potential loss of 1.6 million dollars endangers the representation of the company based in Los Angeles of hundreds of immigrant children, unaccompanied minors who often have no support for adults.
The CEO of the public lawyer Kathryn Eidmann, said that she thought that her organization had a duty to call what she considers an injustice: to leave vulnerable children without legal representation.
“We are responsible for defending our mission and defending our customers and the rule of law,” said Eidmann. The public lawyer seeks to intervene in court on behalf of the “sanctuaries” cities like Los Angeles, which were threatened with a loss of federal funding, and the cabinet came to the defense of targeted law firms to provide a pro bono representation to groups in disgrace.
The public lawyer and other non -profit law firms continue to wait to see if the Trump administration will honor the temporary ban on a judge, demanding that funds continue to move to those who represent immigrant children. Funding was not restored on Wednesday, a lawyer spokesperson said.
Another non-profit organization in the Los Angeles region threatened by the loss of federal funding under Trump's anti-dei thrust is Los Angeles Neighbourhood Land Trust.
The group had won a $ 500,000 subsidy from the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that the redevelopment along the Los Angeles river in the northeast of the protecting housing, jobs and services for the families of the working class. But the money has ceased to flow this year, without any explanation of the EPA, said Tori Kjer, executive director of the Land Trust.
“For them, it's probably a waste of money,” said Kjer. “For us, it is a development and a fair building in a way that supports everyone.”
Kjer said that a member of the staff of a liberal member of the Chamber urged his group to take a low profile and, for example, to remove the thanks from the Aboriginal land which are in the signature line of all his emails. She refused to do so.
“We are not going to change our ways because of Trump,” said Kjer. “In California, as a state and in this region, we are still very progressive. If we cannot continue to pass this kind of work here, we have real trouble. We think we have to resist, so even in a small way. “
The campaign to protest against the potential Medicaid cups will focus on six house districts where the use of the health system funded by the federal government is high and where the Republicans hold a narrow electoral advantage at best.
Targeted districts include David Valadao In the central valley and Ken Calvert in the Coachella valley. Almost two thirds of valadao voters use Medicaid, while around 30% in the Calvert district do it.
Residents of these districts will hear how Trump's budgetary plan threatens to reduce Medicaid for “everyday people” and how substantial reductions could threaten to close rural hospitals that already find it difficult to reach both ends.
The Health Justice Action Fund was created in 501 (C) (4) by St. John's and around 10 other health care providers, who have chosen to remain anonymous. The regulations governing these funds allow them (unlike non-profit organizations themselves) to engage in unlimited lobbying and a certain political activity.
The president and chief executive officer of St. John's Community Health, Jim Mangia, on the right, on a panel in 2022 with the secretary of health and social services of the time, Xavier Becerra and the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass.
(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
The rules also allow contributors to remain anonymous, which, according to Mangia, is necessary for some of its partners, who think they will be targeted for reprisals if they become clear that they have tried to thwart Trump's policies.
The House Republicans who have been in a hurry on their position supported, despite an opposite opinion of experts, that the Trump cuts can be executed without taking services from the beneficiaries of Medicaid.
Valadao was part of a dozen republicans of the Chamber who sent a letter to party leaders by saying They would not support the plan of the White House If he will force the Medicaid cuts. Republican leaders assured their flickering colleagues that they intend to reduce waste, fraud and abuse, not the advantages of Medicaid.
Mangia said the campaign he and his allies take a look at the House of Republicans that Medicaid cannot be cut.
“There is a very scary environment at the moment,” said Mangia. “But someone had to intensify and defend Medicaid and the basic health care that he provides to so many people. We were not going to let it happen without a fight.”
