Read stories from the new Americans our network has helped, our partners and volunteers working on the ground, and the New Americans Campaign.

NIIC 2021 Expanding Access to Naturalization

This past October, almost 1,000 immigrant rights advocates and policymakers gathered in Las Vegas for the National Immigrant Integration Conference (NIIC). It is an important transitional time, and it was a welcome opportunity for practitioners and immigrant community leaders to engage with one another as well as with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) senior […]

November 11, 2021
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Shehnaz Reza: We decided to change our lives for the sake of our children

Four days a week, I am the receptionist at the Indo-American Center in Chicago. As the door opens, I’m the first one to see people. I say, “Wear the mask, put your mask up, it’s not for show, it’s for your health. Use the hand sanitizer, we have put a machine over there. Go safely […]

December 4, 2020
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Isael and Oralia Martinez: When I took my oath, I looked at the clock and took note of the time that my dream came true.

Translated from Spanish by Alphonso Franco, Outreach Coordinator at Proyecto Inmigrante.  Isael Martinez: I first came to the United States when I was 17 years old from a small town in Mexico. There were no jobs or opportunities there. I was the oldest of seven children, two brothers and five sisters, and I was their […]

November 4, 2020
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IRC Volunteer Sarah Johnson: Raising Funds in Phoenix with a New Americans Campaign EFFORTS Grant

The New Americans Campaign, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, set up a fund in 2018 to help partners develop and experiment with new fundraising strategies for their naturalization programs. The goal of the Experimentation Fund for Optimizing Revenue-raising Techniques & Streams (EFFORTS) was to encourage partners to find new revenue streams, […]

October 23, 2020
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Toan Van Nguyen: After 35 years, going back to Vietnam was his gift to himself

Toan Van Nguyen: I was in the Vietnamese Airforce, where I worked alongside the U.S. Airforce in Saigon, Vietnam. I was a pilot and I flew helicopters in and out of the Pleiku jungle during the most critical times of the war. After the war ended in 1975, I was imprisoned for three and a […]

October 1, 2020
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Virtual Citizenship Workshops Shift Into High Gear This September

The coronavirus pandemic brought an end to the large in-person, indoor workshops that many of our New Americans Campaign partners worked tirelessly to orchestrate over the years. It did not, however, put an end to the need. With a substantial fee hike looming on October 2, many of our partners have become more flexible, creative, […]

September 16, 2020
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Citizenshipworks: Virtual Review Pioneer

The online platform Citizenshipworks was launched in 2011 to make applying for citizenship easier and more accessible. It was designed by three non-profits, Immigration Advocates Network, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Pro Bono Net, to provide in-person naturalization service providers with an online tool to help complete naturalization applications. The world has turned upside […]

September 3, 2020
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Martha Olivas: “For so long I felt that this is my children’s country, my grandchildren’s country, and now I know it is my country too.”

Martha Olivas, who became a citizen on February 28, 2020, told us her story with the help of Michel Rangel, an immigration program coordinator at Arkansas Immigrant Defense, a New Americans Campaign partner, who translated the discussion from Spanish. Martha Olivas: I applied for citizenship because that was my dream, I love this country. I’ve […]

August 25, 2020
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Lessons from Our Virtual World Part Three

In this third and final installment of Lessons from Our Virtual World we hear from service providers in New York City where priorities have shifted in the pandemic’s devastating wake. Click here to read Part One and Part Two. GMHC and NALEO Educational Fund In New York City, where the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the […]

June 17, 2020
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Lessons from Our Virtual World Part Two

In Part Two of this series of three posts we go to Atlanta, Georgia to learn how the IRC Atlanta’s virtual review pilot project is adapting to meet the new challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic. Click here to read Part One. The International Rescue Committee in Atlanta The IRC in Atlanta, Georgia, also had […]

June 16, 2020
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