Below is an abbreviated sampling of the issues discussed at the two-day Latino Advocacy Day 2025 conference held at Denver’s Grand Hyatt on March 16 and 17. The 500 participants, including 150 adolescents met in classroom settings to learn the issues and prepare them to lobby members of the Colorado legislature. After a march from the Hyatt to the State Capitol, participants met with 60 legislators to discuss these and other issues deemed important to Colorado Latinos.
CALL TO ACTION: We demand legislation to protect the civil rights of immigrants. In March 2024, LAD participants identified policy priorities to continue to strengthen state policies to protect the civil right of immigrants. Since then Voces Unidas and COLOR (Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights) have been working with directly impacted individuals, other community organizations, state legislators, the Attorney General’s Office , and other to introduce legislation during the 2025 legislative session. We are now halfway into the session, and no legislation has been introduced. This is unacceptable. The time to act is now!
Talking points
- Given new threats to our communities in 2025, we need to enhance protections for immigrant students and their families. School districts need to ensure that the constitutional rights of students and their families are protected while in school.
- Immigrants in Colorado represent 11.5 % of workers and 15% of business owners generating $54 billion economic output. Immigrants also pay $2 billion in state and local taxes and $4.6 billion in federal taxes annually.
SB25-130 Ensure Emergency Care Access
What this bill does: As attacks from the federal government and states hostile to reproductive justice grow, this bill ensures Coloradans are able to get the emergency care they need — including pregnant people who need an abortion or miscarriage care. This bill would create state protection to require emergency care be provided to all patients in Colorado and prohibit denial or discrimination of emergency care, including because of a patient’s ability to pay for type of care needed.
Talking points
- The bill allows the young community to have appropriate access to emergency medical services in situations where they require urgent medical attention, regardless of what type of care they need or their ability to pay.
- Federal law with life-saving protections is under attack. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) makes providers’ duty to save patients’ lives clear, but states with some of the most restrictive abortion bans have challenged EMTAMA and its protection in an attempt to exclude pregnant people who need abortions from emergency care.
- Barriers to healthcare do the most harm to Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities, people with low incomes, and people living in rural communities.
HB25-1286 Protecting Workers from Extreme Temperatures.
What this bill does: Whether it’s snow removal, construction, roofing, landscaping, housekeeping, assembly line, meat packing, agriculture and so many other areas, indoor and outdoor workers lack basic protections, especially when forced to work in freezing or sweltering temperatures. This bill creates common-sense protections for Coloradans who have to work in extreme hot or cold conditions, including access to water to stay hydrated, shade and shelter to prevent illness, and training to know how to identify symptoms. Protections would start above 80 degrees Fahrenheit for heat and below 30 degree for cold. Employers would be subject to compensatory and punitive damages for violations.
Taking points
- The escalating impacts of our rapidly changing climate have increased the urgency to legislate protections for workers.
- Whether summer or winter, Latinas and Latinos are traditionally overrepresented in jobs more impacted by the hazardous temperatures targeted by the bill.
- Prolonged exposure to high temperatures can lead to heat-related illnesses such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke, which can be fatal if not properly treated. Likewise, prolonged exposure to cold can lead to conditions such as frostbite, fatigue, confusion and loss of coordination. These conditions reduce productivity, increase the risk of accidents, and can result in long-term health issues.
