{"id":83218,"date":"2025-12-05T21:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T21:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/83218\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T21:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T21:08:07","slug":"more-oc-immigrants-could-get-citizenship-visas-under-1-5-million-state-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/83218\/","title":{"rendered":"More OC Immigrants Could Get Citizenship, Visas Under $1.5 Million State Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"

More immigrants throughout Orange County could get citizenship status, work visas and other legal documentation following a $1.5 million state grant to Catholic Charities of OC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It comes roughly five months after federal deportation efforts kicked off in early June, which saw ICE agents and Border Patrol officers detaining and arresting people throughout Orange County at places like Home Depots and car washes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Founded in 1976 when scores of Vietnamese refugees were coming stateside, Catholic Charities Executive Director Ellen Roy said the organization has helped 350,000 people gain legal status in the county.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur immigration services are at the root of what we do,\u201d Roy said at a Friday morning news conference in Santa Ana.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had some really rough times this year, so I did a lot of praying,\u201d Roy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Catholic Charities Executive Director Ellen Roy speaks to Congressman Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) after the press conference announcing $1.5 million in state funding for immigration services for local families. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Assemblyman Avelino Valencia (D-Anaheim), who helped spearhead the $1.5 million grant, said ICE raids are greatly impacting Orange County.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are second only to LA when it comes to deportation cases statewide,\u201d Valencia said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also said federal officials haven\u2019t learned from history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the proud son of Mexican immigrants \u2013 they came here in the early 80s. And they were some of the fortunate ones who \u2013 because of amnesty \u2013 they had an expedited path to citizenship,\u201d Valencia said. \u201cInstead of learning from the best of our past, we are making the same worst mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly 970,000 of Orange County\u2019s roughly 3.1 million residents are foreign born, according to the Census Bureau<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An estimated 229,000 people are undocumented in the county, according to the Migration Policy Institute<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, cities like Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Santa Ana have rolled out immigration aid funds for residents \u2013 helping families impacted by ICE raids with things like legal services, rent assistance and food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

[Read: Immigration Legal Aid Funds Grow in Orange County<\/a>]\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week, Santa Ana City Council members bolstered rent relief to low and moderate income immigrant families who\u2019ve been impacted by the ongoing ICE raids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Congressman Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) said the United States is \u201ca country of immigrants from all over the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also called on people to document the ongoing ICE raids and federal deportation efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure our children and grandchildren remember what we went through,\u201d Correa said at Friday\u2019s news conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said the legal services the grant provides is critical for immigrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first step to Due Process is having legal representation,\u201d Correa said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re doing here today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Middle, Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), speaks to a migrant advocate during the press conference announcing funding to Catholic Charities of Orange County to help the organization obtain citizenship status and other legal documents for immigrants. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) said the $1.5 million grant sends a message.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis $1.5 million \u2013 it\u2019s not just a line item in our state budget, it\u2019s a commitment,\u201d Rivas said during Friday\u2019s news conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also said the community input he got from an August immigration round table<\/a> \u2013 along with numerous resident testimonies \u2013 impacted him and his colleagues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese stories that we heard here and all over the state \u2013 they stick with you,\u201d he said. \u201cImmigrants are the backbone of this region.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More immigrants throughout Orange County could get citizenship status, work visas and other legal documentation following a $1.5…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,14273,14274],"class_list":{"0":"post-83218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-orange-county-ice-raids","12":"tag-orange-county-immigration"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}