GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A federal grant freeze has put a West Michigan citizenship language program at risk, potentially impacting legal immigrants seeking to become U.S. citizens.
The Literacy Center of West Michigan, which offers English language classes to help legal immigrants prepare for the naturalization test, received a letter on Feb. 4 from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The letter stated that their $300,000 grant has been frozen and reimbursement payments are no longer available.
Wendy Falb, director of the Literacy Center of West Michigan, expressed concern about the situation. "We have waiting lists for this program, so we know the need is very high, and the benefits aren't just to the individuals that become citizens; it's to their entire family; it's to our whole region," Falb said.
The center is currently evaluating its financial situation and reaching out to donors to potentially continue the program. "We haven't made the decision to stop it as of yet, but we're in the process of looking at our financial picture and also reaching out to some of our donors," Falb explained.
Amisi Mabruki, a 21-year-old who immigrated from Tanzania in 2018, credits the program for helping him achieve U.S. citizenship. "Like, no idea; What can I do to become a citizen? I was just struggling a lot, and I found Literacy Center, helping with the classes, and all the worries just go away," Mabruki said.
Mabruki emphasized the importance of the program for refugees and immigrants. "Because this program is very important to us. And like you can see, we are refugees, so we have money to pay to go to different school, but this was free, so I can see that I would be real bad if they shut it down, and a lot of people would be struggling to get their citizenship," he added.
The Literacy Center reports that they were one of 36 organizations nationally that received this grant. Attempts to reach Jane Sommerville, Grants Branch chief for the Department of Homeland Security, for comment on the funding freeze and the process to restart funding were unsuccessful.
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Grand Rapids
Literacy Center of West Michigan impacted by federal funding freeze
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