A local program that is helping green card holders become U.S. citizens has lost its federal funding. Emmie Gardner, the executive director of Holy Cross Ministries, said the lack of funding will impact the work they can do.
“We have a grant that was helping green card holders become citizens,” Gardner said. “It was called the Utah Citizenship Initiative. We just heard that the federal funding through USCIS was cut. However, again, Utah being Utah, and this is money out of the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity, reapportioned monies so that we could continue to complete that grant cycle, right? Because we have over 50,000 folks who are eligible to become citizens here.”
The state grant ends in December and she’s doubtful they will get all 50,000 green cards completed by then. She said they’ll rely on donations to finish the work if necessary.
Meanwhile, 2024 was a busy year with a 7% increase in the number of clients served.
“The vast majority, 62% were women, 12% are our littles under 18, 75% are uninsured and nearly 70% are living in poverty,” she said. “The piece I want to emphasize is that these are really hard-working families that are really trying to just make a better life for themselves that are really contributing members. Many are either mixed status, and that's part of why they’re underinsured or uninsured. But again, they're here. They're a part of our community. They're our family, our neighbors, our friends and they want to make a difference.”
She said they have a legal immigration team with two attorneys, a paralegal and five Department of Justice accredited representatives. And since January she says the phones haven’t stopped ringing.
“We're the largest what's called, U visa provider, which means we are helping folks that are victims of crime, primarily domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking," Gardner said. "We do over 25 comprehensive consultations a week. But in addition to that, what we've seen in the last three or four months is our phone ringing off the hook and doing a variety of screenings of kind of mini consultations, if you will.”
She said they’re ramping up outreach efforts into schools and through the LatinX stake center with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Click here to find more information about Holy Cross Ministries.
