5 state hubs to give leg up to foreigners

Aim is educating them on options

Sofia Ramirez, 5, watches Tuesday as her brother, Fernando, 9, tries a Hula Hoop during a block party and ribbon cutting for the Immigrant Resource Center in Springdale. The center is the first of five planned for the state.
Sofia Ramirez, 5, watches Tuesday as her brother, Fernando, 9, tries a Hula Hoop during a block party and ribbon cutting for the Immigrant Resource Center in Springdale. The center is the first of five planned for the state.

SPRINGDALE -- Two nonprofit groups plan to open five resource centers in the state in the coming months to provide legal services, leadership development opportunities and civic integration support to the more than 138,000 foreigners in Arkansas.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette

Mireya Reith, excutive director for the Arkansas United Community Coalition, gives a few remarks Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015 at a block party and ribbon cutting for the Immigrant Resource Center in Springdale.

The Springdale center at 1301 E. Robinson Ave., Suite B6, opened earlier this year, and community members gathered Tuesday to celebrate its official inauguration. Additional offices are planned in Little Rock, Fort Smith, De Queen and McGehee.

The project is a collaborative effort between the Arkansas United Community Coalition and Catholic Charities Immigration Services.

"We're trying to fill those gaps of information of what they need," said Mireya Reith, executive director of the Arkansas United Community Coalition. She is also heading the resource centers. "It's the merging of two models," she said.

The United Community Coalition focuses on grass-roots organizing, training, and awareness and coalition-building campaigns. Catholic Charities Immigration Services provides low-cost counseling and support.

Arkansas' foreign-born population increased from 1.1 percent in 1990 to 4.5 percent, or 133,888 people, in 2013, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Hispanic population in 2013 was 6.9 percent statewide, while Springdale's population was at 35.4 percent.

Reith said the program is for all foreigners, and she has met with members of Northwest Arkansas' Marshallese, Hmong and Indian communities.

Frank Head, director of Catholic Charities Immigration Services, said his office in Springdale will continue to offer its assistance, and he hopes that the resource centers will reach a broader spectrum of people.

He said the Springdale church office opened in 1997 and helps about 1,500 people each year. People from 37 countries used the program last year. About 70 percent were from Spanish-speaking countries, and the majority were from Mexico, Head said.

About half of the people looking for help are in the United States legally, he said.

The idea for creating the resource centers picked up steam in November after President Barack Obama said the U.S. immigration system is broken and that the focus needs to be on deporting people who threaten national security and public safety, instead of on families.

Jeannie Burlsworth, founder and chairman of Secure Arkansas, said Tuesday that there is nothing wrong with the nation's immigration policy and that it just needs to be enforced.

"It's there, and it's the law," she said. "What we need is a moratorium on immigration to get everything stabilized and see where we are at. Immigration policies are not being enforced."

Head said many foreigners don't know what programs are available, such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. It offers two-year work permits for people who came to the United States as children and meet several guidelines such as age, residency and educational background.

The Springdale resource center will offer weekly legal clinics from 6-8 p.m. on Thursdays for citizenship and deferred-action applications.

Reith said there are about 40,000 legal permanent foreign residents in Arkansas and about 11,000 students who are eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Less than half of those who would qualify for the deferred action program have applied, she said.

"When we find them, we do a great job of getting them approved," she said.

Reith said the centers are opening in locations where the organizations had previous partnerships. Organizations are donating space for the centers. She hopes to open one in the state's northeast corner by year's end.

The program gives youths an opportunity to emerge from the shadows, she said. The Arkansas United Community Coalition has helped 1,395 foreigners with citizenship and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals applications since 2012.

Zessna Garcia Rios received her Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals permit in 2012. She is a recent graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and started in July as an American Dream Fellow in the Cisneros Center for New Americans in Springdale.

"I was undocumented for 23 years. Through DACA, I was able to get an internship with a big local company and was able to finish my college education," she said.

The Cisneros Center for New Americans opened a year ago in Springdale and is developing programs to help foreigners integrate into Northwest Arkansas.

Rios said she has volunteered for several organizations, including Arkansas United Community Coalition, over the years and has become well-versed in the available resources. A local attorney helped her gain her two-year work permit.

"The center will make it easier for others to access that resource," she said. "Having locations across the state will be very beneficial to people that need those services."

Metro on 08/19/2015

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