(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music fades) - More than 100,000 immigrants live in Central and Southern Illinois.

Moving to a new country isn't an easy thing to do, but there is help out there.

The Immigration Project has helped people from more than 60 countries with legal and social services.

We'll learn more about the Immigration Project in a few minutes, but first, our Phil Luciano has more information on immigrants in Illinois.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music fades) Right now I am joined by executive director Charlotte Alvarez and Camila Graunke.

Is that correct?

Thank you.

With the Immigration Project.

Ladies, thanks for coming in.

- Thanks for having us.

- Thank you.

- Can you give us a little bit of background on the Immigration Project and how long it's been in Central Illinois?

- Sure, the Immigration Project has served Central Illinois since 1995, so almost 30 years.

We serve 86 counties in Central and Southern Illinois, so over 45,000 square miles.

Historically, we've done immigration legal services to help people become permanent residents or citizens, or protect from deportation.

And then in the last four years, we've really expanded out to doing a lot more social services and comprehensive support.

- And I know we wanna talk to you, Camila, about that, because you've done it firsthand yourself.

But let's talk first about some of the terminology we're gonna be using, because we hear the word immigrants, we hear migrants, we hear refugee, we hear documented, undocumented.

Can you kind of give us a rundown of what we're talking about here?

- Yeah, that's a really great question because immigration law is so complex, it's second only to the tax code in complication.

So there's just a lot of nuance and variety and detail.

And immigrants as a collective are really diverse, right?

We have people from countries from all over the world who are residing in Central Illinois.

So there's a whole range of statuses people could be in.

Some are undocumented, meaning they might have had an immigration status that expired, or lapsed, or didn't ever have a status.

And then we have people who have temporary statuses like visas, like students, here are student visas or visitors.

And then we have people with permanent residency who are able to remain here permanently, but they have to keep on renewing it and complying with some terms, all the way up into US citizens who either born in the US or they naturalized and became citizens down the road.

So there's a whole mix of different options people have for status.

And it's kind of a continuum.

Each status has its own application process and has its own benefits.

- What is the term you use for someone who is in the country and has not gone through the proper legal channels?

- Yeah, so if someone has had no interaction with immigration, then they'd probably be undocumented.

- Okay.

- We don't use the term illegal 'cause it's not accurate.

So I'm an attorney, I'm all about following the law, right?

And like the technicalities of the law.

So if someone is out of status or never had an immigration status, they'd be undocumented, 'cause it's not actually part of the criminal code that they have committed a crime.

They've committed like a civil violation, just like all of the other kind of parts of the regulatory state that we have.

- So if an undocumented person comes to you and asks for help, it's not your obligation or your duty to call authorities or anything on them?

- No, no, definitely not.

We have a whole team of immigration attorneys and legal advocates.

So if they come to us for help for their immigration legal status, then our question is, well, what status are they trying to achieve?

Are they looking to stay here more permanently?

And if so, what are the legal pathways to do that?

Sometimes there's a pathway and we can help them get to that next step.

And sometimes our immigration system doesn't have an option and they're kind of stuck and trapped in that undocumented status until we have a better system.

- Camila, can you tell us a little bit about your experience?

You were born in Ecuador, now you're here in Central Illinois.

Does going through the process make you wanna do what you're doing now as far as helping other people?

- Yes, yes, it does.

I think for me, especially when I turned 16 was right around the time when Obama put out the possibility of being a dreamer.

And I didn't really get much of the experience of not having an opportunity to work legally.

And so I didn't experience it too much until, you know, I had DACA for a while and when there was a different presidency time, DACA was threatened to not exist and that was horrifying.

I was going to school, I was getting my bachelor's, I was working two to three jobs to make my education possible, and without DACA, it was impossible for me to do that.

So I have gone from a couple different sectors of immigration and I am a green card holder now, but that's not a possibility that many people have, no matter how you got here or how great you behave, like for a lack of a better term.

Sometimes even the best people don't get a chance.

Yeah.

- Sure.

When people or immigrants come in, they wanna be a citizen, they wanna contribute, they wanna hold a job, the legalities, are they facing state and federal laws, or how does that work?

Does every state have different laws or is this more of a federal thing?

- Yeah, immigration is part of our federal framework and it's in the constitution as a federal law.

Well, Supreme Court has interpreted it as part of the constitution under federal law.

So, theoretically, it's the same wherever someone goes.

However, there are some local variance in interpretation.

So for people seeking asylum, right?

We think that we have one version of what asylum should be for the whole country.

If someone has a fear of return to their country and they have that fear based on one of the five protected grounds, they should be able to explain that to an officer who's a federal official and get the same answer no matter where they are.

But that's actually not the case.

In practice, we see some judges in other parts of the country who have 99% denial rates for asylum claims, right?

And so they're not actually looking at every one of those grounds and then other parts of the country where those denial rates are way different and whether or not someone has an immigration attorney can affect their outcomes in that process.

So, technically, it's all one international framework, but practically speaking, there's a lot of variety.

Is someone in the right place?

Can they get the right legal access, and can they get a federal official who can really look at their situation and apply the law correctly to it?

- Would you consider Central Illinois or the state of Illinois one of the friendlier places in the US for immigrants to come to?

- Yeah, I think so.

I think the state of Illinois supports immigrants in a whole bunch of different ways.

One is that the state of Illinois actually supports immigration legal services and recognizes that the rights to asylum and other protections really need that legal support to get accomplished.

So we receive some of our funding, a lot of it, but not all of it, but we received some funding from the state to do those services, like citizenship applications, for example.

And that's unusual.

And then also on the other social supports side, access to schools and access to education for DACA recipients and things like that, access to driver's licenses.

There's a lot of ways where the state recognizes that immigration status isn't the all and the whole of a person and we can really say driver's license should be for drivers, for example, right?

Because driver's license are to protect drivers regardless of status, our higher education should be accessible to DACA recipients who are on the pathway to really contributing to the state.

So there's a lot of ways the state really helps.

- Sure, you mentioned different legalities that's gotta be mind numbing for even a lawyer like yourself, who is well versed in this, but I wonder, Camila, when people are migrating here, besides maybe the language barrier, what are some other barriers or difficulties they face as far as maybe just adjusting to our way of doing things?

- Yeah, there's a lot, and I can speak from my experience and a little bit of my current education, understanding it from the perspective of migratory grief, there's so much a person goes through when you first leave everything you have for a new environment, starting with your identity, right?

If you're a working professional in your country and you come here and you were a nurse, but now you can't be employed anywhere.

You were a teacher, you were a professor, you were running companies and you come here and you have no place in society, your loss for the identity aspect of who you are, then not to mention the difference of the way things are done, the driving, how you apply to things, where you call, how you call, the time you work, the time you don't work, social standards, cultural standards, the way you dress.

All those things are shifting for an individual.

So to consider the difficulties, they're vast.

If you could just imagine how difficult sometimes it could be for somebody to travel and just like be completely in culture shock over a different culture, a different language, different everything, but to live in that and to find the acculturation process for yourself to get acclimated to a new area, a new you.

And that process is long.

Whether somebody has been here for years, I've been here for 18 years and I'm still in the process of understanding what it means to be dual-cultural and duel-lingual, and just like understanding what it means to be both, and at one point be one and at one point be another.

So it's different for everybody.

And I do know I feel privileged to be where I'm at, but not everybody gets to have the experience of being able to work and have that possibility as part of their identity, so.

- You came from Ecuador.

Why did your family decide the US would be a better option?

- Yeah, because it's a great country to live at.

So, I know my parents, my mom had got a chance to be here when she was 18 and she loved it.

She saw how many opportunities there were for her and for her family.

And so we came here looking for a better life.

And I know it was an extreme sacrifice for my parents, but I get to live.

They put up the ladder and I get to walk in a higher stage because of the work that they did, so.

- When we talk about immigrants, I think a lot of people assume that most immigrants are coming from south of the US, but in looking at the numbers, it looks like, I mean, they're coming from everywhere.

Can you give us an idea of maybe some of the more bigger countries that people are coming to the US from?

- Yeah, Central Illinois, because we cover such a vast geography, we see different pockets of communities across the region, which is really fascinating and sometimes really specific to the zone and region.

So if you go up to Monmouth, Illinois, for example, there are Burmese refugees who have fled conflict in Burma Myanmar and have settled and created a new home in Monmouth, Illinois of all places.

In Champaign, we see a lot of Guatemalan immigrants in recent arrivals.

And also, anytime there's a university, there's an international cultural hub from that, right?

The University of Illinois.

In Illinois University, both of those, and even Southern Illinois University, they're all bringing in immigrants who are professors, and professionals, and grad students to those regions.

So we see those populations in those university centers.

We also across, there's like a band in kind of Central Illinois of kind of francophone participants.

So you see individuals from Haiti who speak Haitian Creole in French, and then also longer standing populations from Democratic Republic of Congo.

So we've been doing some work in creating a francophone alliance and bringing together these Haitian communities with Congolese communities, and Congolese communities have been here a little bit longer and are a little bit more settled.

So that's been really interesting to see.

It's really a really fascinating landscape once you start interacting and finding different pockets of community throughout the region.

- And I'm sure that helps people coming from those countries if they could find someone who's lived in their country previously, that's gotta be a bit of a relief anyway.

- Yeah, definitely.

You know, I think, Camila, what you were saying about people, a lot of immigrants come with a lot of hope and a lot of grit and determination, and some come with some connections.

So we have in Bloomington-Normal some Venezuelan families who have been able to be reunited in the United States after having a long time separated.

And so you'll see more established Venezuelan community members helping the recent arrivals and partnering with them and helping explain, well, winter's coming, right?

Like, be prepared.

Here's how you get a winter coat.

Kind of those parts of aspects of living in Illinois, you know, where do you go?

What are the best restaurants?

How do we make our own new communities here?

- You recently got a really big grant.

Tell us about that and what that's gonna mean for the Immigration Project.

- We were really excited and pretty shocked to receive a $2 million grant from the Yield Giving Fund.

So MacKenzie Scott has a foundation, she's the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos from Amazon.

And as part of her mission to help redistribute the wealth from that into charitable causes, they had an open call.

So, nationally, they invited anyone who wanted to, any organization to apply for funding and just explain who we are, what we do.

And so we applied for it kind of threw a dart into the void, see what we'll see.

And we were so fortunate to be selected of one of only, I think there were 367 organizations throughout the country who received grants.

And we have $2 million and we're really excited about that new opportunity.

It covers about 2/3 of our budget for a year.

You know, we're, we're larger, we have almost 50 people on staff and we have wait lists that are over 500 people long for some of the services we perform.

So there's definitely a lot to do, but it will be a good, solid foundation for us to build from.

- What are some of those wait services that people are trying to get into?

- Yeah, so we have a lot of legal services.

So we help survivors of domestic violence and trauma apply for status, asylum seekers, we have a lot of recent arrivals who need support on the legal services side.

We also have a program for unaccompanied minors, so kids who came without their parents, and we don't have enough capacity to serve all of those.

There's no right to an attorney, even in removal cases, even for children.

So the US government says that two year olds can represent themselves in deportation proceedings without an attorney.

- Yeah, I have that look too.

- Really?

Hmm.

- I don't know if you've ever talked to a two -year-old and asked them - Oh, yeah, I have.

- What country they're from and what happened to their country and what their legal claims are, but it's not easy.

- I wouldn't imagine so.

My gosh.

- So we do a lot of that work and then on social services we help people, you know, figure out what are the resources happening in their community and how can immigrants equally access those resources.

- Camila, when you meet immigrants who may be in this country for the first time, I'm sure they're nervous, maybe a little scared.

From your experience and what you've done with the Immigration Project, what's one of the first things that you tell them?

- I start with the basics.

I go with, do you have shelter?

Do you have access to food, resources that are food pantries around the area for where they live, education, medical needs?

Yeah, just some of our basic things, right?

So some of those basic needs and once we have those bases covered, and especially for children also getting health insurance, those are like the first things we check, check the boxes, right?

You can establish yourself with some of those basic needs being met.

After we get through that, we can talk more about, okay, so here's where you can find this, here's where you can find that to really get acclimated.

But when you come, a lot of times, especially in a state of crisis, you could be in a state of crisis and you want some of those things covered before you could think about what is six months from now.

You're thinking about where am I sleeping tomorrow?

How am I getting my family settled in a place where they can thrive?

- Do you have any words of wisdom from what you went through in terms of, I'm sure you gotta tell 'em to be patient?

This is not an overnight process.

Anything else that you tell them to make them feel a little better?

- I don't think they're looking for an emotional pat in the back in that moment.

They're really hoping for some help, and we provide that.

Through the Immigration Project, we're able to meet those needs.

If somebody was to ask my personal, you know, what can I do during this moment?

For me, it was people, family, and God.

So, it was just those things that we leaned close into and felt like that we needed somebody else, we needed a helping hand, and those were our helping hands to get to where we are.

- And I will say, we serve low income populations, right?

A lot of immigrants, again, through our universities, through State Farm, Caterpillar, a lot of the immigrants who are coming to downstate Illinois are coming at, they have resources, stability, they have all those needs met and they're maybe not coming to the Immigration Project for those services.

So I think that it's another moment to recognize the true diversity when we talk about immigrants as one category, we have people who've been here 30 years, people who are coming in, who are doing investment visas for over a million dollars and a whole range in between.

But our goal is to make sure that folks who are, no one's lost in between, right?

That throughout this region, people who are low income, regardless of where they're from and regardless of where they're living, have what they need to live in dignity and respect.

And one thing I tell people the first time I meet them is like, welcome, we're glad you're here, right?

Because I think that it's just so necessary for us to have immigrants in our communities.

They're revitalizing the populations in a lot of small towns where we have the native born populations who are leaving smaller town America, right?

And immigrants are really a revitalizing force and have higher rates of entrepreneurship, are contributing to our tax base.

So I'm just happy to see them and happy to see how can we help them get to that next stage where they're really contributing and thriving.

- Yeah, and we've seen even spouses of work visas who, like I mentioned, they have their profession back in their home country and they're willing to give back and volunteer like weeks with us and give back.

So, yeah, Charlotte is right.

There's a whole world of spectrum of different types of immigrants that are here and we are happy to serve them all, so.

- Why is it that sometimes someone coming from another country, say was a CEO and they come here and it's not translating, they have to get a job, I don't know, driving a cab, being a janitor.

Why does that not translate, or at least right away?

- Yeah, that's a great question.

I think it depends on the industry.

So, for example, as an attorney, if I moved to a different state and I wanted to practice real estate law, right?

I would actually need to go get a license in that new state to do that type of law and work.

And so we have some of that restrictions of licensure that happens in between states, and it definitely is exacerbated on a national and international scale.

So, for example, we had a former employee with us who was an anesthesiologist in their country and then came here, and that license doesn't transfer and qualify.

There's a process for that.

Often, involves more education.

The cost of education in the United States is often prohibitively expensive for new folks.

And then there's tests and licensure often that are not accessible in other languages and have to be taken in English.

So a lot of licensing, they might have all of the job skills and knowledge base for it, but they might not check the licensing check boxes as easily.

- Okay.

Yeah, that does make sense.

But it seems like if you're a doctor in one place, you could be a doctor in another.

- Yes.

- Just a lot of red tape and things they have to deal with, I guess.

- Yeah, and I think that there's definitely room for advocacy and room for licensing organizations to kind of look at those requirements and say like, how are we being supportive and welcoming of that transition and more work we can do to have the right sorts of job transition programs to make that happen for folks.

- Before we let you go, again, that grant money sounds like it could be a big game changer.

Anything that you're not doing now that you'd like to maybe start doing now that you have that money?

- I always have a million things I think we should be doing.

The question isn't like, what are we not doing yet that we want to do, it's which direction to go?

So we're taking a pause and step back and we're doing some strategic planning.

We're involving our board and staff and clients and doing some stakeholder engagement to really say, how can we utilize and leverage this moment for long term success and sustainability?

I could use it up in a second and help people today, but then are we really making sure that Immigration Project is gonna be here in the long term and making sure we're meeting that mission across that whole service area as best we can?

So I don't know yet what we're gonna do, but I have a million dreams.

- It's a great problem to have, I tell ya.

Well, Charlotte Alvarez is the executive director of the Immigration Project and Camila Graunke, congratulations on coming to the US and living your dream and good luck with your studies.

- Thank you.

- Thanks for joining us.

- Thanks for having us.

- Appreciate it.

- Thank you.

- Thanks.

- Back here with Phil Luciano.

Some impressive numbers about the number of immigrants in our area.

- Oh man, you don't really think how much immigrants have that come into play financially.

When you talk about billions, billions, that's a lot of money.

- It sure is.

All right, we are back in just a minute with another episode of "You Gotta See This".

What do we have on board?

- We got some landmark stories.

One is a roundup and you're in this segment.

It's about some of the most popular distinguishing landmarks in the Peoria area, and are (indistinct) in there?

Check it out and see.

Meantime, we go up to Princeton where a couple is revitalizing an old hotel, an ancient hotel, and it's pretty impressive.

It's a two-person effort and they're making it work.

- Well, now that school's out for just about everybody, some of these Peoria landmarks might be a good idea for the parents to take kids around town and show 'em what's going on.

- And I think they're all pretty much free.

You just go there and look at it.

It's not like I gotta pay to get in there.

Another one we're gonna do, another story we have on this episode, it's about a Dunlap High grad who wrote a novel, it's a pretty interesting novel, and it's based here in Central Illinois.

Some of the references she makes you'll know it.

She uses the real names, roads, places, others she disguises and it's for reason she doesn't want to maybe disparage them a bit, but you can figure out some of them.

So it's interesting.

- Not about you, is it?

- You know what?

If I was, dang, I missed it.

- Names Change to protect the guilty or innocent.

Who knows?

- Gotta reread it.

- All right, thank you, Phil, and thank you for joining us.

You gotta see this, it's coming up right now.

Don't forget, you can check us out any time at wtvp.org and on Facebook and Instagram.

Have a good night.

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