Where can the immigrants from La for help under Trump go? Try the public library

Among the shelves at the Central Library in the center of Los Angeles, Ramón Hernández sits in a cabin for a few days a week, holding an hour after consultations with immigrants who have questions about their legal status.

The demand for the free immigration services of the Public Library has increased since President Trump’s return, who attacked immigrants as “poisoning the blood of our country,”He promised the largest mass deportations in US history and suggested the sale $ 5 million “golden books” granting rich people permanent residence and a way to citizenship.

Anyone can meet an immigration expert by phone or in person at half a dozen public library locations in Wilmington Los to Pacima, through a long-term program, named by the city, called New Americans initiative.

“I have seen more people who want to either finally do their citizenship, or adjust their status to become legal permanent residents – and many of them are because of the new administration,” said Hernández, who work for the Coalition for Human Immigrants, a non -Profit Advocacy organization and one of the provision of more services.

Hernández and his colleagues help people become legal residents, request citizenship and renew green cards or act postponed for childhood arrival permits. They can help people prepare for the citizenship exam or the records of registration for their immigration stories, among other services.

Libraries also provide general consultations to address questions or problems that people have on their immigration status within the Trump administration.

“Everyone is now trying to have a plan, to answer their questions talking to a trusted immigration service provider and they must know their rights,” Madeleine Ildefonso, managing the librarian for the Civics Office and Community Services of the Public Library.

Iladefonso, a 20 -year -old veteran of the library system that in 2018 helped launch New Americans initiativeHe said the program has registered an increase in calls from the beginning of the year. The library also received a leap in requests for The cards “know your rights”. The size of a credit card, the red cards, available in a variety of languages, advises citizens and non -citizens of their constitutional rights and can be handed over to immigration agents to invoke the 4 -and 5th amendment.

She said the library prints cards in 18 languages, with plans to expand to 31 languages. The library also plans several classes and citizens’ workshops to prepare key documents and decide who will take care of children if a parent or relative is detained.

About 1.4 million Angelenos, or 36% of the city’s population, are born abroad, and 29% additional have at least one immigrant parent, according to an analysis of the Pew research center of the US Census Bureau. The subway area at has The second number of size of immigrants in the nation after New York. Immigrants make up about 15% of the population at national level, according to Think Tank.

This month, members of the Municipal Council of LA proposed new measures To take over the city’s resistance to Trump’s immigration policies, including more financing for immigration legal services groups and a complete campaign “Know your rights”.

If it were successful, some of these proposals would mean expanding on the type of support offered by the public library for years. The new American initiative was launched under former Mayor Eric Garcetti during the first Trump administration and built on a previous road to the citizenship program that offered courses to eligible people. Some larger library systems, including New York City, offer similar programs.

The program, which is entirely funded by the city, has a budget of $ 1.2 million for fiscal year 2024-25 and is one of the main ways in which the city provides assistance to immigrants. Although some of the money support the classes and workshops on naturalization, citizenship and English as a second language, most of them go to individual sessions with immigration experts, such as Hernández.

The assistance is available to anyone at the branches of the participating library, regardless of their immigration status or where they live.

In December, Mayor Karen Bass signed a law of the sanctuary city that prohibits the employees of the city and the resources to be involved in the federal application of immigration, consecrating a policy established for the first time by the Executive Order a few years ago. President Trump has then threatened to punish “Sanctare cities” by Reducing federal fundsIncluding disaster rescue money at the recent wild fires must be recovered.

Many meetings are initiated through a line of phone messages. Multilingve library employees returning these calls can receive hundreds of them each month. The schedules can also be scheduled online. One-on-one are offered in English, Spanish, Armenian, Korean, Farsi, Russian and Tagalog. The program administrators hope to add Chinese and Thai tangerine.

All 72 public libraries in Los Angeles also have “welcome stations” with materials to help legal residents with the naturalization process. This includes “citizenship envelopes” with a list of verification of all documents and steps needed to become naturalized citizens, as well as other resources, such as flash cards to help vocabulary knowledge and civic knowledge for the citizenship test.

Over 500,000 people from the county have been eligible legal residents to naturalize from May 2024, according to US citizenship and immigration services.

One of the greatest barriers in the way of citizenship is oral civic exam with 100 possible questions. Naturalization application It is an obstacle in itself and can make more visits to the library over a few months to be completed.

The promotion of civic literacy and self-declaration is in accordance with the long history of the US public libraries that offer education and other resources to immigrants. The tradition returns to the golden era and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant whose philanthropic support for public libraries has been designed to educate citizens and immigrants alike.

Ildefonso said that anyone has concerns about privacy should be calmed by the long tradition of public libraries to protect people’s confidentiality.

“The library staff is trained and knows how to deal with questions that come to our library from law enforcement,” she said. “The members of the community should feel safe in a library frame. We are only known as safe spaces for a lot of people. “