Feds cut funding to IU13, CWS program offering free citizenship classes, legal services

• By Ashley Stalnecker/LNP | LancasterOnline

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has canceled a grant that for 15 years has funded free classes and legal representation for lawful permanent Lancaster County residents who want to become U.S. citizens.

Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13 and Church World Service, which partner to offer the classes and legal representation, are seeking alternate funding to continue them, but organizers say the program will not likely continue.

Through the grant program, IU13 has offered classes that develop spoken and written English skills, explore topics in civics and U.S. history, and prepare participants for the citizenship exam. Church World Service, a faith-based nonprofit that helps resettle people in the U.S., has provided citizenship application services including eligibility screenings and legal representation.

The two organizations have served approximately 250 people a year through the program, according to IU13 spokesperson Shannan Guthrie.

Church World Service had already signed a contract to represent about 40 residents so far this year at no cost when the Department of Homeland Security canceled the program March 27 and ordered all work by both organizations to cease, said Janet Tisinger, Church World Service associate director for immigration legal services.

“That’s one of the conundrums we’re in right now,” Tisinger said. “We already signed a contract with clients and — whether they paid your fee or not — we represent them legally, and it’s not a simple thing to just get out of that representation.”

Tisinger said the IU13 also plans to continue its already scheduled classes with alternate funding. Guthrie did not respond to a request for comment about the intermediate unit’s plans.

Funding for the free classes and legal representation started in 2010 with a $100,000 Citizenship Instruction and Naturalization Application Services grant through the Department of Homeland Security, which notified IU13 in late March of the grant’s termination. The termination came five months into a 2-year allocation.

Over the 15 years that the organizations received the grant, it increased twice – to $125,000 per year in 2013 and to $150,000 per year in 2022.

“This grant was relatively small in dollars, but its impact on the community was huge,” Tisinger said.

Over 1,900 refugees, diversity visa recipients, legal permanent residents (green-card holders) and asylum seekers have received Church World Service legal services through the program since 2010, according to Rachel Helwig, the nonprofit’s associate director of development and engagement.

According to the termination notice, which Helwig shared: “DHS has determined that the scope of work performed under this award no longer effectuates the program goals and the Department’s priorities.”

Tisinger said IU13 and Church World Service jointly were one of only 40 recipients nationwide to receive the grant upon reapplying each year.

Helping the ‘most vulnerable’

The annual funding wasn’t nearly enough to help every individual in the community who wanted to become a citizen, Tisinger said, so the program focused primarily on what it saw as the “most vulnerable” cases.

Low-income clients, for example, need help filling out a fee waiver with the government to proceed with citizenship applications. Those seeking a medical exemption for the citizenship test must — with the help of a doctor — prove a physical or developmental disability or mental impairment inhibits their ability to learn English or U.S. history and civics.

“We never had to do outreach for this program,” Tisinger said. “Clients are in abundance.”

Without the federally funded program, Church World Service is required by the Department of Justice to charge a minimum fee — in this case $450 — to provide full legal representation in a naturalization case. That’s still low, Tisinger says, compared to the cost of hiring a private attorney, but it can be an “insurmountable hurdle” for some.

Becoming a naturalized citizen does not require legal representation — anyone can self represent — but any mistakes during the application process could not only disqualify an individual for citizenship but result in deportation, Tisinger said.

“Citizenship is just so important on a grander scale,” Tisinger said. “It’s so important for people to feel safe and secure and belonging and have the right to vote and participate in that civic duty.”

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Going forward

The nonprofit hopes to continue offering services to those who can’t afford the $450 fee for legal representation, but to do so now would require finding alternate funding sources.

The immediate effect is that “there’s inevitably going to be a wait time that was not as much of an issue before,” Tisinger said.

Church World Service is already straining under other federal cuts to immigration and refugee services, as President Donald Trump continues to take a hard stance against accepting newcomers to the U.S.

In January, the Lancaster nonprofit furloughed roughly 150 of its staff when the Trump administration suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, cutting off federal resources. Tisinger said CWS’s legal services department, which once had 31 employees, now has 18.

Even the staffer who provided free services through the now ceased grant program had been furloughed and much of that work shifted to Tisinger. That staffer has since been hired back.

The people served by the federally funded program “need our involvement,” Tisinger said. “They need the classes with the IU13. And, without this funding, that disappears and it just doesn’t seem very sensible to me — why this program in particular — helping people achieve U.S. citizenship would be the one to disappear.”