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Catholic Charities CEO Jennielynn Holmes is calling on community members to think about giving the gift of citizenship this year.
The "Fund a Future Citizen" campaign is in its early stages of development. Holmes says It wasn’t born to expand care, but rather to fill a gaping hole.
In May, the Trump administration cut over $500,000 dollars in federal funding from the budget that supports legal permanent residents through the process of becoming a U.S. citizen.
Chris Rogers---former Santa Rosa mayor and now the city's representative in the California Assembly---said these funding cuts affecting all immigrants.
"When you have funding being taken from programs...that are helping people to access these programs....and get through the system that's already challenging, that it's not about whether people do it legally or not; you just don't want those folks to do it," Rogers said.
The "Fund a Future Citizen" campaign allows donors to sponsor just that: someone who will go through the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. The total cost of test fees, legal services and classes is about $1,400 per person.
Holmes said she thinks it’s important to provide this service now more than ever, with possible ICE threats to Sonoma County.
"We cannot let hateful rhetoric and harmful policies hurt any more families or take away any more of our community," Holmes said.
Find more information about the "Fund a Future Citizen" campaign at the Catholic Charities of Northwest California website.
