House Spending Bill Would Eliminate Immigrant Integration Initiative

The House has passed a spending bill that will provide funding for the government to operate for the remainder of the fiscal year.  The bill provides for $100 billion less that the President requested in his Fiscal Year 2011 budget request.  It proposes to appropriate no money for the Office of Citizenship.  If enacted, the Office of Citizenship would continue to be funded out of the Examinations Fee Account (as it is now), but there would be NO money for the Immigrant Integration Initiative, including the grants made to local organizations to help immigrants prepare for citizenship. 

The Senate returns this week to begin work on its own version of a spending bill.  Funding for the government is now being provided by a temporary “continuing resolution” that was passed at the end of the last Congress.  That continuing resolution expires Friday. Indications are that the House and Senate will agree on another temporary continuing resolution to provide two more weeks of funding for the government.  That will give the House and Senate additional time to reconcile their differences.

Write to your Senators and Representatives asking them to reject the House’s cut. Target Senators and Members of the House who sit on the Appropriations Committee, in the leadership, and a few others (such as Charles Schumer, head of the Immigration Subcommittee).

We waste so billions on ICE and border enforcement. We must at least spend some funds on immigrant integration efforts. That’s much smarter money.

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