The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, or CHIRLA, is one of a number of organizations that serve immigrants by helping lawful permanent residents earn U.S. citizenship.
But those services were jeopardized last month, when the coalition got a notification from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stating that their congressionally approved funding had been put on hold.
The funding freeze meant disruptions to students receiving civics instruction, taking classes to learn English and getting ready for citizenship interviews and exams.
Over a hundred other organizations have also had their services interrupted, with no end in sight.
“It’s not fair,” Karla Aguayo, director of legal services at CHIRLA, told NBC News on Friday.
The notification, which was received via email on Feb. 4, was no longer than five sentences.
It read: “Effective immediately, your grant from USCIS is frozen in accordance with the pause in activities,” generally citing a Jan. 28 memo from the Department of Homeland Security without specifics. “Payments are not available at this time. We recognize this will have an impact on your organization. We are unable to provide a timeline on this freeze.”
CHIRLA hasn't heard from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services after that email, Aguayo said.
On Friday, 35 Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to USCIS Acting Director Kika Scott and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem seeking answers on the funding freeze.
“There has been no indication, evidence or even outright allegation that grantees have failed to meet their commitments or contractual obligations in good faith — raising serious concerns over the justification for disrupting their ability to provide crucial services,” reads the letter, which was first obtained by NBC News.
If USCIS funding is not reinstated to this program, it will erase the progress made in reducing naturalization backlogs in recent years, the lawmakers said in the letter, spearheaded by Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., whose parents immigrated from Mexico. If backlogs grow, the time it takes to process citizenship applications will likely double.
USCIS told NBC News in an email the agency has "nothing further to add on this matter" in addition to what's in the memo, which cites "concerns that these grants may not be an efficient use of government resources" as a reason for the funding freeze. DHS has not responded to a request for comment.
As grantees of the Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Program, CHIRLA was set to receive $450,000 in federal funding from USCIS from October 2023 until September of this year to help hundreds of green card holders.
"We want to create as many citizens as we can," Aguayo said.
The funding freeze has sent the coalition on a race to find alternate funding to afford the labor needed to assist immigrants with their citizenship applications. “We’re not waiting because it’s already been over a month, and we haven’t heard anything” from USCIS.
“We can’t now abruptly pass on this inconvenience to the students. We can’t just say, ‘Oh, sorry, no more funding. Today is the last day of class,’” she said.
In the letter, the lawmakers said the grant program has improved efficiency by "equipping eligible applicants with the tools to navigate the naturalization process more effectively — saving USCIS valuable time and resources otherwise spent resolving errors, issuing requests for evidence, or reprocessing applications."
Lawful permanent residents, or green-card holders, who may be eligible to become naturalized citizens this year may find the situation "disheartening," according to Aguayo.
But "we always encourage people to apply despite the circumstances," she said.
