Services underwhelming for undocumented

By: Danielle HesterChicago is considered by some to be a national model in terms of the range and cultural sensitivity of available resources for Latinos with disabilities.

Among the many Chicago-area agencies assisting Latinos with disabilities are the 16 governmental and nonprofit organizations that make up the Committee for the Integration of Latinos with Disabilities—known to some as the CILD. In regular communication with each other, the agencies produce materials in Spanish and often go to neighborhoods with large Latino populations to make informational presentations.

“Chicago is doing phenomenal work,” said Kathy Martinez, executive director of the World Institute on Disability, an organization in Oakland, Calif. that promotes the civil rights and social inclusion of people with disabilities. Her organization co-sponsored a conference in 2004 with Access Living, a member of the CILD that promotes independent living, provides services and advocates for people with disabilities.

But help may be somewhat less than phenomenal for undocumented Latino immigrants, who are not eligible for assistance from six of the 16 CILD organizations.

Some groups conduct background checks with Social Security numbers. Officials with the agencies said that undocumented immigrants are also disconnected from services because they’re unaware of the agencies or afraid to seek help.

Zully JF Alvarado, the founder and president of Causes for Change International, a volunteer organization helping to create self-sufficient communities across the globe, makes it clear that she is not very welcoming of cases dealing with undocumented immigrants. Alvarado’s organization does not provide assistance to undocumented immigrants, but when they call she does offer them words of advice.

“I don’t turn them away, but if you’re here illegally, you have to want to change some things in your life. This would include becoming a citizen,” said Alvarado, who advises clients and refers them to other services. “I guess you could say I do assist undocumented people. But my first question is to see what the situation is and how they can better themselves by getting legal status and proper services.”

Anel Gonzalez, the bilingual technical assistance specialist for DBTAC: Great Lakes ADA & IT Center, said some undocumented immigrants have been afraid to file complaints of employment discrimination when they get injured on the job and become disabled, for fear of retaliation from their employers.

“This is fear that they created themselves, by assuming that that is going to happen and by the harassment by the employers,” Gonzalez said. “The very sad part is that sometimes these cases could be very good to investigate, but because they are fearful, they never file a complaint.”

The Great Lakes Center helps to eliminate those fears by educating their clients on their rights covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The center is one of 10 CILD resources that do not ask for citizenship status. But advocates said that doesn’t completely erase the fear of deportation or stigma of being undocumented. “It is not often that people want to share their status,” said Gonzalez, who rarely gets calls for service from undocumented Latinos who became disabled on the job.

“Those calls are not common,” he said. “In general, we get about 650 calls per month. I would say seven to 10 for the year are undocumented cases who have been disabled on the job.”

Rene David Luna, community and economic development team leader at Access Living, said more education and outreach is needed to inform undocumented immigrants of the services that are available to them.

“They are a hidden group. They believe themselves not to be eligible for many services, so they don’t call organizations enough or get in contact with resources,” Luna said. “All the barriers immigrants face in the first place and then having a disability on top of that … they are totally left out.”