NDWA NEWSLETTER | MAY 2025 |
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HONORING AAPI HERITAGE MONTH
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As Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month kicks off, we are taking a moment to honor and uplift the powerful role AAPI domestic workers have played in shaping our communities and our movement.
For over a century, AAPI domestic workers —most of them women— have been caregivers, housekeepers, and nannies. They have ensured the well-being of families across the country with skill, compassion, and dedication.
From Chinese and Filipino migrants in the late 19th century, to Japanese and Pacific Islander women who worked through exclusion and exploitation, AAPI domestic workers have always been essential — but rarely seen or valued. They faced deep discrimination, dangerous conditions, and systemic erasure. But they also organized. AAPI domestic workers have long fought for dignity and justice — joining labor movements, challenging injustice, and laying the groundwork for the protections we continue fighting for today. Their resilience, leadership, and activism helped transform a private, undervalued job into a public, collective fight for rights and recognition.
Today, AAPI domestic workers remain on the frontlines — leading campaigns, mobilizing communities, and shaping the future of labor and care. Learn more about the powerful history of AAPI domestic worker organizing on our interactive timeline. |
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BRINGING THE FIGHT FOR CARE TO CAPITOL HILL |
This month, as Congress considers proposals that would gut Medicaid, ramp up immigration enforcement, and weaken access to home care and child care, NDWA members are heading to Washington, D.C. to speak out — and speak directly to the lawmakers deciding our futures.
Our lobbying delegation includes working parents caring for both children and elders, home care workers whose jobs depend on Medicaid funding, and care recipients who rely on these essential services to live with dignity.
These cuts aren’t just numbers on a budget — they are an attack on the care infrastructure that millions of families rely on every day. If passed, they would devastate Medicaid, endanger immigrant communities, and drive care workers — primarily Black, Latina, AAPI, and immigrant women — into deeper crisis. They would make it harder for parents to find child care, for elders to age safely, and for workers to continue doing the jobs that hold up our entire economy.
That’s why we’re taking action on every front.
From May 7–8, we’re joining a 24-hour vigil on Capitol Hill to uplift the stories of care workers, families, and Medicaid recipients from across the country. Join us by tuning into the livestream from 5-6PM ET on Wednesday and 9-10AM ET on Thursday and standing in solidarity with those whose lives and livelihoods are on the line. And from May 19–22, our members will be in D.C. delivering your petition signatures directly to lawmakers—demanding they protect Medicaid and invest in care, not cuts.
Add your name to the petition today—and tune in to the livestream to stand with our movement in this critical fight. | |
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For more than 40 days, NDWA member and immigrant rights leader Jeanette Vizguerra has been unjustly held in ICE detention — ripped from her family and community. She was detained on March 17 and now faces deportation to a country she hasn’t called home in decades.
At a recent vigil outside the Aurora ICE facility, Jeanette called in to thank her supporters and share that she is in good health — still holding strong in the face of injustice. But she should not be behind bars. She should be home.
Jeanette has lived in the United States for over 30 years. She is a mother, a grandmother, and a fearless advocate who has spent her life fighting to keep families together.
Now, her children are fighting for her. They traveled to Washington, D.C. to share her story at our National Assembly and speak directly to lawmakers, lifting up her voice and demanding justice.
Jeanette has stood up for countless families in moments of crisis. Now, it’s our turn to stand up for her — and demand her immediate release and reunification with the loved ones who need her most. Add your name to demand Jeanette’s immediate release and show that our movement stands with her, her family, and every immigrant facing unjust detention.
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Philly POWER Act Within Reach
Last month, NDWA members and allies in Philadelphia made history with a successful City Council vote for the POWER (Protect Our Workers - Enforce Rights) Act. This groundbreaking bill will provide anti-retaliation protections and real labor enforcement for 750,000 workers across the city.
This is a huge step toward ensuring that domestic workers — and all workers — are treated with the dignity they deserve. The final vote is coming up TOMORROW, and the momentum is strong.
If you’re in or near the Philadelphia area, be there for this historic moment: WHEN: Thursday, May 8, 2025 9AM - 10AM: Final push rally at the northeast corner of City Hall 10AM - 1PM: City Council session and vote
WHERE: City Hall, Room 400 Let's pack the room and show the City Council that Philly stands with workers! |
North Carolina and Georgia: Day Without Child Care Actions
On May 12, NDWA chapters in North Carolina and Georgia will join the nationwide Day Without Child Care—a bold call to action to address the child care crisis threatening families, providers, and our economy.
In North Carolina, NDWA will host two major actions in Charlotte and Raleigh, bringing together hundreds of child care providers, workers, parents, and advocates. Together, we’ll lift up the essential role of child care in our communities and demand real public investment to keep centers open, support working families, and ensure fair wages and conditions for providers.
In Georgia, our NDWA chapter will gather in downtown Atlanta for a powerful day of storytelling, celebration, and collective action. We’ll honor the trailblazers in early childhood education, spotlight the challenges facing both families and providers, and demand long-overdue solutions from state leaders. This is more than a rally—it’s a movement to secure the future of care and education in Georgia
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Arizona: Marching for Essential Worker Rights
Last month, hundreds of people came out for the annual César E. Chávez and Dolores Huerta March and Rally in Tucson, Arizona, honoring the farm workers movement and essential workers who kept our communities going through the pandemic, including our domestic workers. The march celebrated Chicano culture, lifted up domestic workers’ rights, and sent a clear message that the fight for basic protections is far from over. |
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WE POWER CARE: A MOVEMENT ON THE MOVE |
In April, more than 1,200 domestic workers from 25 states came together in Washington, D.C. for NDWA’s 2025 National Assembly: We Power Care.
Over four powerful days, we trained, strategized, danced, debated, and built toward our future. More than 60 workshops covered everything from AI and the future of labor to organizing for immigration reform and fighting for fair wages.
At the center of the Assembly was the Power Capsule — a collection of messages, memories, and mementos from our community, sealed to be opened five years from now. The Power Capsule gave workers a chance to reflect on how far we’ve come, recognize the power we’ve built together, and strategize about how we carry our shared vision forward.
Your messages were collected for workers to read, absorb, and carry with them in the weeks, months, and years ahead. And when we gather again in five years, we’ll open the Power Capsule, revisit those messages together, and see how far we’ve come.
This assembly was not just a gathering — it was a declaration. Domestic workers are no longer organizing in the margins. We are shaping the future of work, care, and justice.
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THIS MONTH IN DOMESTIC WORKER HISTORY | |
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Jeanette Vizguerra and the Fight for Immigrant Justice
Jeanette Vizguerra’s story is not just her own — it reflects the long, ongoing struggle of immigrant domestic workers who have risked everything to build a life, support their families, and demand dignity in a system designed to exclude them.
After arriving in the U.S. from Mexico in 1997, Jeanette worked as a housekeeper and janitor, later becoming a union organizer with SEIU Local 105 and co-founding Rights for All People. In 2017, when she was targeted for deportation, Jeanette took sanctuary in a Denver church for 86 days with her three U.S.-citizen children — becoming a national symbol of resistance and resilience. Jeanette’s story is a powerful reminder that the fight for domestic worker rights is inseparable from the fight for immigrant justice — and that our movement will not be whole until every worker can live and work with safety, dignity, and freedom. Learn more about Jeanette on our interactive timeline. | |
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