USCIS Announces "Citizenship Corners" for L.A. Libraries

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Wednesday, September 19, 2012, a new initiative to provide the Los Angeles Public Library's 73 locations with citizenship resources and training for library staff. This initiative further expands upon the agency and city’s partnership announced in January 2010 to strengthen and enhance local immigrant integration efforts. 

“Today we take a further step to expand citizenship resources for immigrants in Los Angeles by providing information about the naturalization process in libraries,” said Mayorkas. “We are proud to yet again partner with Mayor Villaraigosa and the City of Los Angeles on this important initiative and to support immigrants on their journey to become American citizens.”

 Some highlights of this new initiative include:

               Training for library personnel on the naturalization process and available USCIS resources;

               Designating space in each library as ‘citizenship corners,’ which will contain citizenship material and resources;

               Offering a list of non-profit groups providing naturalization assistance in the local community; and

               Providing access to library community rooms for citizenship and English language classes.

As the second largest city in the country, Los Angeles is home to immigrants from more than 140 countries who speak 224 languages. The State of California is home to nearly 3.4 million permanent residents, 2.5 million of whom are estimated to be eligible to apply for naturalization. 

“This joint initiative expands our efforts to educate the city’s immigrant community about citizenship and establishes our libraries as local citizenship information centers,” Mayor Villaraigosa said. “We are excited about the opportunity to support the many immigrants and their families that hope to one day achieve their goal of U.S. citizenship.”

USCIS and the City of Los Angeles first established a partnership when they signed a Letter of Agreement for a two-year pilot project. Originally scheduled to conclude in January 2012, the two parties renewed the agreement for an additional year in April 2012.

USCIS Announces $5 Million in Grants for Immigrant Civic Integration Programs

As part of its celebration of Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Monday, September 17, 2012, the award of approximately $5 million in grants designed to promote immigrant civic integration and prepare permanent residents for citizenship. Thirty-one immigrant-serving organizations from 21 states and the District of Columbia will receive federal funding to support citizenship preparation services for permanent residents through September 2014. 

Since the program began in October 2009, USCIS’s Citizenship and Integration Grant Program has helped more than 38,000 permanent residents in 30 states and the District of Columbia prepare for citizenship. Through Sept. 30, 2014, USCIS anticipates that an additional 26,000 permanent residents will receive citizenship preparation services as a result of the grants.

“With this grant program, USCIS continues its support for eligible permanent residents on the path to citizenship,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. “By expanding the availability of high-quality citizenship preparation services in communities across the country, this funding helps thousands of permanent residents pursue their goal of U.S. citizenship.” 

USCIS granted the awards through a competitive funding opportunity to organizations that will provide both citizenship instruction to prepare permanent residents for the civics and English components of the naturalization test, and naturalization application services within the scope of the authorized practice of immigration law. 

The Citizenship and Integration Grant Program is part of a multifaceted effort to provide citizenship-preparation resources, and support and information to immigrants and immigrant-serving organizations. USCIS complements this grant program with its Citizenship Resource Center, a centralized Web resource that provides learning materials to help permanent residents prepare for the naturalization process, and the Citizenship Public Education and Awareness Initiative, a multilingual initiative designed to raise awareness of the rights, responsibilities and importance of U.S. citizenship among the estimated 8.5 million permanent residents nationwide eligible to apply for naturalization.