City Council program keeping hope alive for immigrants

COVID-19 was more than a health crisis for New York City’s working families. It was a jobs crisis, a hunger crisis, and a housing crisis. To get through the multiple crises, many turned to the community organizations that had supported them in the past, and those neighborhood institutions came through.

At the Consortium for Worker Education, we have partnered with many of these community organizations for years to deliver job training and other programs through our City-Council-funded initiatives Jobs to Build On, Worker Service Centers, and Immigration Protection Group. Organizations that are in the community and trusted by the community are able to serve vulnerable residents that are otherwise missed.

As we continue to work our way out of the pandemic and rebuild in its wake, New York must continue to invest in and support the community-based organizations that will ensure that all our residents can recover. Please read on for more on the work by CWE and our partners to meet the needs of New Yorkers during the pandemic and into the future.

Iman Fawzy Mehelba (right) and ANSOB Center helped Thanaa (left) along a challenging path to citizenship

For many immigrants, the road to a stable life in the United States is a difficult one, and the last few years only made it harder. As the federal government rolls back some of the harshest policies of the Trump administration, CWE’s Immigration Protection Group and our partners are educating immigrants on what the changes mean for them and how they can prepare for what’s next.

“There is a lot of misinformation about what is changing and Immigration Protection Group members are educating their communities about what is possible in this moment,” says Darly Corniel, Education Director at CWE. “If more opportunities for citizenship do open up, we are also helping them prepare to apply.”

Throughout the pandemic, which has hit immigrant communities harder than most, Immigration Protection Group members have continued serving the city’s immigrants. The consistent support from their community organizations and unions helped many immigrants avoid panicking or making rash decisions. Catholic Charities brought their CWE-funded citizenship classes online, so students could continue preparing for the citizenship test. CIANA in Queens called all of their clients to find out what support they needed and to help them get it. Make the Road NY campaigned for a new fund for jobless workers who are ineligible for unemployment insurance, such as undocumented immigrants. The $2.1 billion fund was included in this year’s state budget. The ANSOB Center for Refugees continued its classes and full immigration services in person as well as remotely for refugees, asylees, and other immigrants.

Catholic Charities Community Services partnered with CWE to provide English and Citizenship classes starting in 2019. During COVID, they brought those programs online to keep serving immigrants

Thanaa probably wouldn’t be a citizen today if she hadn’t found the ANSOB Center. When she entered the organization’s Astoria office, she was looking for free legal support on her citizenship application because she couldn’t afford a lawyer. What she found in the ANSOB Center was an organization that would support her along a difficult path to citizenship and make sure she never gave up.

The ANSOB Center, based in Astoria, assists refugees with English and citizenship. Funding from CWE, starting in 2017, allowed the ANSOB Center to increase the number of refugees, asylees, and immigrants it assisted with immigration legal services, and provide job readiness, resume writing, and job search training to the immigrant communities it serves.

CWE partners with ANSOB Center to provide English classes to immigrants

When Thanaa first came to the ANSOB Center in March 2018, she had been a Green Card holder for six years after immigrating from Egypt. The organization was right for Thanaa because it was based in her neighborhood and the ANSOB Center’s executive director, Iman Fawzy Mehelba, shared her native language.

“I knew that there was someone who spoke Arabic. I was comfortable coming here,” says Thanaa. That rapport would help Thanaa through what would become a difficult citizenship process, with four attempts to pass an interview as she dealt with personal loss.

While she was in the United States as a working mom, Thanaa’s only daughter had died of suicide at the age of 13 and, in her grief, Thanaa had been hospitalized. At each citizenship interview, Thanaa would be asked about mental health treatment, sometimes from insensitive immigration officers.

“She would get nervous and have flashbacks when they asked about that,” says Iman. Thanaa failed three interviews over two separate citizenship applications.

When the time came for her fourth chance, Thanaa no longer thought she could succeed. She had recently undergone surgery for cancer. She lost her husband earlier in the citizenship process as well. But the ANSOB Center wouldn’t let her give up.

“Listening to her about what she needs, I knew she couldn’t give up,” said Iman. “I had to do another push. She has been here a long time and it is her right to become a citizen. I love her too much, I respect her too much, to let her give up.”

She told Thanaa that the ANSOB Center would help her be ready for the nervousness and trauma that had undermined her past interviews. Thanaa came to the ANSOB Center for mock-interview practice and tutoring to help her pass the interview without feeling nervous. On the day of her interview, an ANSOB Center attorney met Thanaa in a park near the immigration office and they talked for two hours to prepare her for the interview. “They just warmed her up,” says Iman.

Thanaa became a citizen on April 30, 2021

And on her fourth try, Thanaa passed. She became a citizen on April 30, 2021. She can now vote and apply for a US passport. She is also now eligible for the Social Security she needs to support herself during her illness.

“Now I am an American,” says Thanaa. “I love America in my heart. Americans are my family.”

“She's a good example of how immigrants suffer until they become citizens and how they can be such an amazing addition to the community,” says Iman. “I would like to thank CWE staff and funders because your help is what enabled us to help many immigrants like Thanaa to become an integral part in the community and make their dream of citizenship come true.”

At a challenging moment for working New Yorkers, community-based organizations like the ANSOB Center have the resources to serve their constituents, thanks to the Immigrant Protection Group, and other City Council-funded programs administered by CWE like Jobs to Build On and Worker Service Centers.