Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.

New Americans Campaign comes together for Citizenship Drive in Los Angeles

On Saturday May 4, 2013, nearly 150 immigrants and their families from all over the world trekked to southern Los Angeles County and eagerly waited in line for their chance to take the crucial next step to becoming an American citizen. The huge Inglewood church quickly filled with the sounds of many languages, from Spanish to Vietnamese to Hindi, as volunteers and immigrant service providers smoothly filtered and ushered groups of eligible legal permanent residents through a step by step journey through the naturalization process.

Many of the attending immigrants had been eligible for citizenship for years, but were intimidated by the confusing paperwork, the long struggle to navigate the inefficient system and the expensive $680 application fee.

World Relief and CLINIC Co-Host Timely Training

World Relief and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) co-hosted an exciting conference entitled “Building Legal Immigration Services Capacity Through National Networks and their Affiliates” at the World Relief home office in Baltimore on April 3 and 4, 2013.

The conference was aimed at national immigration networks and discussed how to prepare for immigration reform and its implementation. The conference was held at a critical time point, considering that the Senate “Gang of 8” introduced an immigration reform bill on April 17. Over forty participants attended, representing twenty national organizations and three local organizations.

The sessions of the conference focused on increasing capacity within networks to serve a greater number of immigrants,