Classes Pose Hurdle for New Immigrants

By: Jennifer RoblesAbout 50,000 undocumented immigrants in Chicago who applied for legal residency may not get it because they are not taking required English and civics classes. Enrollment has dropped dramatically in the special program that allows immigrants to take free language and adult education classes through SLIAG, the strange-sounding acronym for state grants funded through federal immigration reform.

The classes, paid by State Legalization Impact Assistance Grants (SLIAG), let immigrants finish a requirement for permanent residency and give a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take five years of free adult education. "Unfortunately, word of these opportunities has not yet been communicated to immigrants in Chicago," said the Rev. Sid Mohn, executive director of Travelers and Immigrants Aid. "Let's not shut the door on these immigrants."

Beginning last spring, about 36,000 immigrants took 40-hour classes in English as a Second Language (ESL) and civics at 30 community-based service providers, City Colleges and Chicago Public Schools. Classrooms were full at first, but enrollment plunged during the last half of 1989.

"We've seen at least a 50 percent decline in enrollment since last summer," said Beth Robinson of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, one of two agencies directed by the Illinois State Board of Education to administer the federally funded legalization classes. "We estimate that 50,000 people in Cook County still need to take the classes to satisfy legalization requirements for permanent residency."

The state board of education is preparing to launch a promotional outreach program to better inform amnesty applicants about the free classes.

"If students are not in classes that is our first priority," said Noreen Lopez, manager of the state's adult education program. "We're not sure if people are waiting longer to come forward, are not aware of the requirements for permanent residency or do not know they can take classes for five years."

Immigration Reform
In Chicago 128,000 undocumented residents applied for temporary legal status during the first phase of the legalization program of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA).

To apply for permanent residency during the second phase, the newly legalized in Chicago, most from Mexico or Poland, must demonstrate "basic citizenship skills."

About 53,000 immigrants in Chicago have applied for permanent residency, completing the "citizenship skill" requirement by passing one of two written examinations or showing "satisfactory pursuit" of at least 40 hours of ESL and U.S. civics course work.

Another 27,000 are agricultural workers and do not have to complete English and civics requirements. (The requirements also are waived for disabled applicants and those too young or too old to take classes.)

This leaves as many as 48,000 immigrants in Chicago who have not met the education requirement needed to get permanent residency. Federal law specifies that if they do not meet this requirement they will return to having an undocumented status and could face deportation if arrested by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

The deadline to file for permanent US residency is based on the day when an applicant was granted temporary residency. Basically, all who have applied for legalization must complete the education requirement by mid-1992.

The "Certificate of Satisfactory Pursuit" does not certify that an immigrant learned specific information or reached a certain level of comprehension. It merely certifies attendance at a recognized ESL program.

But even immigrants who pass the written exam, or are not required to take it, are eligible to get a variety of instruction through SLIAG classes. The program, open to all 128,000 legalization applicants, includes classes leading to a General Equivalency (high school) Degree (GED) and others to help them become more proficient in English or their native language.

Strained Relationships
The unanticipated lag in the number of immigrants pursuing SLIAG classes has strained relations among groups working in the legalization process:

The INS has been criticized for changing the deadline for immigrants to apply for permanent residency, for overestimating the educational level of the immigrants and not funding enough outreach programs.
The Chicago Public School District has been charged with being insensitive to immigrants. For example, its application forms and intake procedures for those taking SLIAG classes are in English only. The district also does not have enough Spanish-speaking ESL instructors and has cut back on the number of SLIAG school sites.
Concerns about SLIAG funding have heightened tensions between community-based groups and state education officials. Local groups want to change state regulations so that federal adult education funds can be given directly to them instead of being channeled through public agencies.

Immigration activists say it is an enormous challenge to bring the SLIAG program, which was designed at the federal level, to the mostly undereducated immigrants seeking amnesty in city neighborhoods.

"This is the first time that an educational program is directly related to the legal status of people trying to move out of the shadows and into the mainstream of society," said Carlos Arango, coordinator of Travelers and Immigrants Aid's amnesty program at Casa Aztlan, 1800 S. Racine Ave. "It's very dramatic, but very complicated, to see people try and come out of hiding."

Undereducated Immigrants
Those trying to educate immigrants concede that it is a difficult task because so many of the newly legalized cannot read or write even in their native language.

"How is somebody who is functionally illiterate in Spanish going to go through the system?" asked Pamela VanderLaan-Moreno, director of the language program for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). "They're faced with a really intimidating situation. They could lose their immigration status and risk deportation."

A national study indicated that 90 percent of applicants speak Spanish; 70 percent have only rudimentary language skills and the majority have had less than seven years of education.

Similarly, the city's first comprehensive survey of applicants by the Latino Institute found that 90 out of 100 recently legalized Spanish-speaking immigrants spoke "little or no English" and 75 had less than six years of formal education. Most of the those surveyed were men between 25 and 29 years of age, according to Maria Elena Martinez, who conducted the study. These men often work long days and weekends leaving little free time to take SLIAG classes, she said, most which are offered only during the day.

Pedro ("Pete") Gonzalez, a Mexican immigrant who has been in Chicago for 10 years, already has passed the written examination and applied for permanent residency. The 35-year-old auto mechanic was unaware he could take free GED and English classes.

"I can't read English well enough to make sense out of the new car manuals that I must understand for my job," said Gonzalez, the father of three young children. "I want to be able to help my children, too, when they get to school. No one told me I could take free classes."

SLIAG Funding
When Congress passed the historic immigration reform law three years ago it mandated $1 billion a year in SLIAG grants until 1992 to help state and local governments bear the social service costs connected with legalizing 3 million people.

Nationwide 1.7 million are required to comply with the educational requirements to get permanent residency. The remainder applied as special agricultural workers and do not have to complete English and civics requirements.

Basically, the State of Illinois is reimbursed by the federal government up to $5 an hour for every hour a student attends an approved course. Illinois received $21.5 million in SLIAG educational funds in fiscal 1988, which ended last September. For the 1990 fiscal period, Illinois received $36 million. Any unspent SLIAG funds can be reallocated by the state until 1994.

Illinois, as other states, got a slow start because the Department of Health and Human Services released its regulations late. Although the state signed SLIAG contracts with service providers in October 1988, classes did not begin until March 1989.

The Illinois Department of Public Aid channeled SLIAG funds to the state board of education. Then the board subcontracted with the Jewish Federation and the Latino Institute, which received a combined total of $500,000. The two groups issue grants and administer the program to 70 service providers statewide, such as community groups, unions and school districts.

Service providers in Chicago received $14 million in fiscal 1988. Except for grants to two Polish organizations and one Korean agency, most funds went to programs for Spanish-speaking immigrants.

Thirty Chicago community-based agencies received a total of $6.9 million in fiscal 1988. In addition, the City Colleges and Chicago Public Schools, together received $7.1 million to provide classes.

Although the community groups have had less funding, they have handled twice the number of students as the city colleges, which got $2.2 million, and the public schools, which got $4.9 million, the largest contract in the state. Robinson estimated that community groups taught 24,000 students by last September compared to 7,000 at City Colleges and 5,000 at city schools.

The SLIAG program has helped community groups show state administrators that they can manage federal funds and educate adults "as well as and sometimes better than public institutions," said Gabriella Strohschen, who coordinates language and civics classes for the Spanish Coalition for Jobs. "Adult education is for people at the bottom of the social ladder," Strohschen said. "We feel the community-based approach has to be the primary step to reach people."

Strohschen said the state needs to revamp its adult-education programs if it is to reach the estimated 750,000 illiterate Chicagoans and high-school dropouts, as well as the amnesty applicants who have not yet signed up for immigration classes.

Enrollment Drops
After an initial surge, public and private agencies teaching citizenship classes began to experience massive enrollment drops.

Robinson said City Colleges' enrollment fell to 3,300 in September from 7,000 four months earlier. Likewise, Fernando Martinez, coordinator of the public school system's amnesty classes, said enrollment dipped to 1,800 from 3,500 IRCA immigrants.

Because of the drop, Chicago Public Schools officially has closed 12 of its original 45 instruction sites. Principals at nine more schools told The Chicago Reporter that they have requested permission to end their SLIAG classes.

The reduced number of sites is one of several factors causing friction between the public school system and community groups.

"The Chicago public school system is doing a terrible job," said Arango of Casa Aztlan. "They're getting most of the SLIAG money but are insensitive to the interests of the immigrant community and were poorly staffed for this effort."

Arango said the school district needs to translate application forms into Spanish and other non-English languages and hire more bilingual ESL teachers.

Part of the problem is that Chicago school reform required the city's SLIAG office to be reorganized last summer, said Rodolfo Serna, the new public schools SLIAG administrator.

"I'm not responsible for what happened with SLIAG before Sept. 1 [1989]," said Serna, head of the new Department of Language and Cultural Education. "We are responding with vigor to the immigrants needs and will be translating materials soon."

The 30 community-based groups that teach SLIAG courses also have seen significant declines in the number of students. At Casa Aztlan in the Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen, Arango said enrollment was down to 300 in mid-December from a peak of 1,000 last March.

VanderLaan-Moreno, of the ILGWU's Escuela Para Adultos ("School for Adults"), said enrollment was 120 in mid-December at the school's North Side location at 1117 N. Ashland Ave., down from 200 last spring.

Illinois service providers offer a variety of explanations for the drop. Some say there was a pent-up demand at the outset because classes started late.

VanderLaan-Moreno predicted another surge of students this summer. "I think we saw a lot of the same kind of waves during the [application phase of the] legalization program," she said. "There was a fast start, a slack period and then a rush at the end."

But Strohschen, of the Spanish Coalition for Jobs, said a change in INS procedures last July may have led applicants to wrongly believe they must wait longer to sign up for the SLIAG education courses.

"Instead of 18 months they now have 30 months to complete requirements to apply for permanent residency," Strohschen said. "But they can still take classes now."

However, A.D. Moyer, district director of the INS, said the time change was "not an important factor" in the enrollment decline.

"You can't use the schools themselves for determining how the permanent residency phase is going," said Moyer, who predicts many applicants will opt for the test rather than classes. "For $10 to take the test, if you pass and get certification . . . a lot of applicants think that's the way to go."

Moyer was unable to provide figures on how many applicants had taken the written test, but he acknowledged that the number dropped toward the end of 1989.

Roberto Cornelio, director of the immigration reform unit in the city's Commission on Human Relations, said immigrants must be informed of the dual-role of the classes: to qualify for permanent residency and to receive free education.

Lopez, of the state's adult education program, agreed: "In the beginning our primary concern was to put an emphasis on those who had to meet the INS requirement," she said. "But it's time to get the word out that there are other opportunities."