Erie House Takes A Lead in Promoting Citizenship
Escrito por Maren Goldberg | 16 mayo 2005
Nearly 225 people have attended citizenship workshops sponsored by the Northwest Chicago Collaborative since it began in January through the New Americans Initiative, a statewide campaign to help new immigrants become active and engaged citizens.
Erie House Executive Director Ricardo Estrada, Governor Blagojevich and Northwest Chicago Collaborative Coodinator Amy Klein at a press conference in the Erie House chapel.
Erie Neighborhood House serves as the lead agency for the collaborative, which hopes to helps more than 2,000 residents become citizens.
"The workshops are a one-stop shopping opportunity for people to obtain information," says Amy Klein, the collaborative coordinator. "We act as advocates on their [immigrants] behalf."
Residents seeking citizenship can attend these workshops for free and access legal services, citizenship and English classes, referrals, and civics training. Erie staff and collaborative partners help residents complete and file their U.S. citizenship applications. Right now, it costs $390 to file an application and $10 for photographs.
The Northwest Chicago Collaborative was formed in January 2005 with a $150,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services funneled through the Chicago-based Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR). The five organizations that make up the collaboration include Erie Neighborhood House, Centro Sin Fronteras, Association House, Northwest Neighborhood Federation and the Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center of the Heartland Alliance.
Eliazar Retana and his wife went to apply for citizenship at one of the collaborative workshops after 29 years of living in Chicago. After hearing the workshop promoted on the radio, he came to Erie House to meet with Klein. "I didn't want to apply before; I have been afraid," Retana said. "The workshop was a very nice experience, it was fast and well-organized."
Bosnian immigrants Azra Talic and her husband came to the workshop after five years of living in Chicago.
"I did it for my future, my kids, my house, my family; I want to see my parents in Bosnia. In the last 13 years, I have seen my mother for one day," Talic said.
Advocating for Citizenship
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez, State Senator Martin Sandoval, State Representative Harry Osterman and Latino Legislative Caucus leaders initiated the $3 million New Americans Initiative to promote active citizenship for Illinois immigrants. ICIRR estimates that of the 1.6 million immigrants in Illinois, only 600,000 are U.S. citizens while 348,000 more are eligible to become citizens. Currently just 32,000 immigrants a year are becoming citizens in Illinois.
"Our program [New Americans Initiative] is working," said Gutierrez at a press conference at Erie House in April. "These residents work hard at tough jobs and are raising families. Taking advantage of this opportunity is the right thing to do."
The press conference was held in response to the federal government's efforts to make changes to the naturalization test, which could make the test more complicated and raise the price of the application fee. Blagojevich, Gutierrez, ICIRR staff and community members promoted the New Americans Initiative at the press conference, while expressing concern for possible changes to the test.
"The federal government is not compensating; they s
