West Valley City US citizenship program at risk due to federal funding freeze

WEST VALLEY CITY — A Utah organization's citizenship program — geared to immigrants here legally trying to become U.S. citizens — is at risk due to a Trump administration funding freeze.

Since 2007, the English Skills Learning Center in West Valley City has provided civics classes to immigrants to prepare them for the test to become U.S. citizens, with around 2,500 people served since then. A decision earlier this month to freeze federal funding earmarked for nonprofit organizations that work with immigrants, however, impacted the ESL Center, as it's known, and has thrown the long-term future of its citizenship program into question.

"The freeze has happened, and we're being impacted, and we're just like many organizations right now — looking at short-term impact and long-term sustainability of federal funds," said Katie Donoviel, the ESL Center executive director.

The organization, like other nonprofits across the country that work with immigrants, learned of the funding freeze on Feb. 4 and has shifted staffing and resources as a short-term remedy to deal with the unexpected change. "But let's be clear, these fixes are temporary. If the freeze continues, it will mean staff furloughs and fewer opportunities for learners to access services," the group said in a message last week on its website.

The administration of President Donald Trump has made the deportation of immigrants in the country illegally, particularly those with criminal backgrounds, a priority. But the funding freeze to nonprofits goes further, impacting programming also meant to assist immigrants here legally. News outlets from Oregon and California report funding to nonprofits that help immigrants in those states navigate the citizenship process has also been frozen, while a Massachusetts organization issued a press release decrying the situation.

"It is shameful to cripple programs that help legal permanent residents become American citizens," Elizabeth Sweet, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said in a press release last month. The organization said $300,000 in funding was frozen, stemming from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services decision and that it had halted a U.S. citizenship program geared to immigrants as a result.

Donoviel said the freeze impacted a $450,000 federal grant to the ESL Center that was to be distributed over two years, through September 2025. That sum represents just over 11% of the ESL Center's overall annual budget. The group's citizenship program, one of many it offers to immigrants, has served 250 to 300 students a year of late through classes offered each quarter. The current class — serving around 65 students — continues thanks to the shifting of resources and staff.

Also impacted by the freeze in funding to the ESL Center was parallel legal assistance programming offered through Salt Lake City-based Catholic Community Services to immigrants in filling out the complex U.S. citizenship application. While the ESL Center citizenship classes continue, at least for now, the CCS legal aid offering — funded via the ESL Center's USCIS grant — has been halted.

We are asking our community to help us with some ... fundraising and so forth to continue that important service," said Aden Batar, the Catholic Community Services migration and refugee services director. " Similarly, the ESL Center's message on the situation contained a pitch for donations to help "during unpredictable times."

Federal officials didn't offer an explanation for the funding halt in advising the ESL Center of the freeze, Donviel said. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which operates under the DHS umbrella, didn't respond to queries seeking more information.

But Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a social media post from late January that she was freezing funding to nonprofit groups that work with immigrants out of concerns they aid immigrants here illegally.

"The Biden administration spent hundreds of millions of dollars resettling illegal aliens in our country on American taxpayers' dime. We will not give taxpayer dollars to NGOs who facilitate illegal immigration," Noem said in the post. In a clip of an interview with Fox News included in the Jan. 29 post, Noem said funding to nonprofit organizations would be closely reevaluated "to make sure that we're actually using the taxpayer dollars in a way that strengthens this country, that keeps us safe."

Donoviel, for her part, said the USCIS funding already came with pretty intense scrutiny from the feds.

"We had to provide a thorough budget, down to the cent how we would use money, a plan, quarterly project goals and outcomes, how it aligns with the purpose of the funding," she said. The organization also had to provide proof the people it helped in the citizenship program were in the United States lawfully.

The Utah Citizenship Initiative hasn't been impacted by the funding freeze since it's part of the state-run Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity, not a nonprofit organization. The organization encourages lawful permanent residents to become U.S. citizens and receives federal funds and private donations, partnering with Holy Cross Ministries.

The relatively new entity "is progressing as scheduled with online monthly information sessions, hybrid citizenship preparation classes and upcoming citizenship application assistance events for legal permanent residents in Logan, Moab and their surrounding communities," said Claudia Gutierrez Sanchez. She's interim director of the Utah Center for Global Talent, the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity entity that oversees the citizenship program.

Likewise, the Weber County Library System's U.S. citizenship program hasn't been impacted, said Lynnda Wangsgard, executive director of the system. It doesn't receive federal funding.

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