Immigrant grant given to three groups
On Feb. 24, Los Angeles (LA) Councilman Curren Price announced that over $1 million in grants will be split between three immigrant advocacy groups. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) and the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) will each receive $500,000, while the Black Alliance for Just Immigration will receive $25,000. Each group aims to help immigrants facing legal matters and deportation and plans to use the proceeds to support these issues.
According to the Daily News, Price will be taking the money from his South LA school district’s funds, which are usually used to fix simple needs such as trimming trees or purchasing new trash cans. The groups will use the grant to help with their immigration legal services, naturalization study classes and to pay for legalization application fees, which can reach as much as $700.
The grant also aims to satisfy those who are not in favor of immigrants who enter the United States through illegal ways. Many argue that a system needs to be established to ensure that immigrants who illegitimately come to this country are not provided with the same benefits that legal citizens are, and problems similar to these are trying to be reduced by the organizations. Some also believe that those who break the immigration laws encourage future immigrants to enter the country illegally; however, with the grant aiding in the payment of application fees, these problems may be solved.
Freshman Judy Dominguez immigrated from Puerto Rico in 2013. Dominguez is thankful for CARECEN since the group will be helping immigrants coming from around her home country. When she came to America, she had to learn a new language and culture, which was not an easy transition for her. She thinks that the funds will make the immigrants feel more welcome and let them know there are people who support them.
“If I were in those immigrant’s situation, I would feel super grateful that [Price’s funds] are supporting me since there were not as many people who supported immigrants when I came,” Dominguez said.
Sophomore Nikita de Vleeschouwer, who recently came from Belgium, thinks that this grant will improve issues regarding illegal immigrants, such as immigrants coming out from hiding or not being questioned at the airport. She believes the constant threat of deportation will make the immigrants afraid to live life in public.
“People’s lives are more important than materials,” de Vleeschouwer said. “The grant should help the immigrants [who are scared to come out], and hopefully make them start working again and overall live more productive lives.”
Geometry and pre-calculus teacher Henry Chou came to America from Taiwan in 1998. Chou thinks that immigrants now are lucky to be getting support like this and he thinks that people should be inspired by Price’s actions of fighting for immigrants’ rights.
“It is important to stick up for other people because deportation and even traveling has become a really big issue,” Chou said. “Since America has so many different cultures, we need to keep our immigrants here to save the [eclectic] culture.”
