24 Aug 2013

Offering a wider range of legal services

Blue cards. Green cards. Congress has not yet passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill, yet Puente has already received plenty of questions from undocumented residents on the South Coast. Many have lived here for decades and are raising children here, sons and daughters who were born in America. They all want legal papers and legitimacy. They want to know how to prepare.

“’Start saving money. Attend English classes. Gather your tax returns.’ That’s what I tell them,” says Puente Program Director Rita Mancera.

Yessenia Herrera

Yessenia Herrera

If immigration reform occurs this year, Puente expects to see more than a hundred new participants who would need help filing government paperwork.

Fortunately, Puente will be ready to help them. Puente is seeking accreditation from the Board of Immigration Appeals to apply to the government on behalf of users seeking citizenship, not just help people fill out a form. Puente will also be able to represent individuals in immigration court proceedings overseen by the Department of Justice.

The Grove Foundation, the primary funder of Puente’s immigration paperwork services, supported the changes. Puente’s new status will give the organization a whole new level of credibility in the community, says Mancera.

“It’s going to be clear to everyone that they can get services from the people that they trust,” she says. “They know we do things in a very honest way.”

Valentin Lopez

Valentin Lopez

Locally in Pescadero, the most popular component of the Senate immigration bill is the Blue Card program, under which longtime agricultural workers would have the opportunity to get legal status if they pass a background check and pay a fine. Eventually, an agricultural worker could apply for a green card. The proposal has broad support from farmers and ranchers.

Puente is already in talks with sister organizations about the best way to anticipate what may be coming next. Eventually, Mancera predicts that Puente would also need to expand its citizenship-tutoring program. Instead of one-on-one, Puente would probably hold citizenship classes and tie them into Puente’s adult English language program.

How low-income applicants would be able to afford the government application fees – thousands of dollars – remains a big question.

Lobel says federal changes are way overdue. Puente has already seen how DACA (President Obama’s deferred action program) has changed the lives of 18 young people who now have legal papers that allow them to work, study, and get a driver’s license. She’s hoping new legislation would give their siblings and parents a similar opportunity.

“People know that it’s a long path – the question is having a path. Right now we’re on a long path to nowhere,” says Lobel.

 

24 Aug 2013

Bolstering Puente’s income tax services

 

You know something strange is happening when a group of people who have never paid taxes before turn up at tax time and demand to pay back taxes – going all the way back to 1992.

That’s what happened this spring as Puente staff and volunteers sat down to process tax returns. Of the 72 participants who showed up to take advantage of Puente’s pro bono tax services, some were first-timers who had lived for years in the area as undocumented residents but had never filed a tax return, says Puente Program Director Rita Mancera.

“They brought all their W2s and all these old, crusty papers. They said. ‘If I have to pay anything, I want to pay it now.’”

Puente tax prep

Volunteers Lary Lawson and Rob Johnson prepare taxes.

Mancera attributes this turn of events to the eagerness with which hundreds of South Coast residents would like to obtain legal status in America. They’re approaching Puente for help because they want to create a paper trail in anticipation of immigration reform.

“People keep asking, ‘Should I do my taxes?’ We tell them that now more than ever it’s important, because that’s one of the first things they’re going to ask people to provide – copies of their income tax returns,” Mancera says.

As Congress gears up to debate the prospect of offering legal status to as many as 11 million residents, economists say one aspect is beyond debate: the $2 billion estimated annual fiscal windfall in state and local taxes.

Many workers without a Social Security number still file tax returns using an ITIN, or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, recognized by the IRS. Mancera says dozens of locals do it every year.

But having a Social Security number entitles someone to better tax credits and benefits, including an earned income tax credit for low-income families. Mancera says that qualifying families get a $1,000 tax credit for each child under 17. Those who file with an ITIN get only a portion of that.

Puente staff members and volunteers are discussing how to expand the tax program as demand grows. Mancera says there’s a group that is already committed to filing taxes every year from now on, regardless: young people reporting their first job income, including those who have temporary work permits thanks to DACA. (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an executive order signed June 15, 2012 by President Obama).

For more information about becoming a volunteer tax preparer, call (650)879-1691 ext. 114 or email Abby Mohaupt at amohaupt@mypuente.org.

 

24 Aug 2013

Expanding Puente’s English Language learning programs

For English teachers, teaching students the conditional tense – that is, how to express a hypothetical situation – can be a challenge. Puente’s staff members are grappling with their own hypothetical situation: “If immigration reform passes, how can we be ready for a lot of new English students?”

kassiandstudents

Learning Center Associate, Kassi Talbot, along with three Bachillerato students who started their on-line program (equivalent to High School).

The most powerful Congressional backers of an immigration reform bill have made it clear that anyone who might apply for a provisional residency permit, let alone a green card, would have to demonstrate a certain level of English language proficiency under the law.

But the level of proficiency required – whether an applicant would need to read, write and speak well enough to pass a test, or simply be enrolled in English classes – is still a matter of debate at the Congressional level.

Either way, Puente’s English Language programs – the only source of ESL classes anywhere between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz – would see a surge of interest.  “All of these people are going to realize, ‘Oh my god, I need English to get on my pathway to citizenship.’ It’s a completely different motivation to learn English,” says Kassi Talbot, Puente’s Learning Center Associate in charge of the ESL program.

ritaandstudents

Puente program director, Rita Mancera, congratulates two ESL graduates.

Attendance at Puente’s Level 1 and Level 2 English classes already has grown since instructors shifted their teaching style to a comprehension-based approach, as opposed to the grammar-based style of learning favored by more traditional ESL schools. Students learn in Spanish and English, so they aren’t shy to speak in class.

That said, Talbot has a feeling that a proposed immigration bill would favor a more traditional approach, which Puente found far less effective with its population.

Puente has been discussing how to combine the two methods in the classroom in order to help students meet citizenship requirements.

Puente is part of an adult English language cohort, led by Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF), which brings together peer organizations to strategize on the best ways to provide support to immigrant communities. Capacity and funding could also be an issue, says Talbot.

“I’ve heard there would be federal funding, but the way it trickles down it will not reach us in time. So we’re going to need to firm up a way to cope.”

Puente’s approach to education has the support of the community foundation, which has helped fund English language programs in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties as a strategy for immigrant integration. Lifelong English language acquisition is a worthy goal in and of itself, says Manuel Santamaria, Director of Grantmaking with the community foundation. “Research shows that if you’re reading and writing at an 8th grade level of English, your economic well-being increases along with a gain in educational opportunities.”

Guadalupe Valdes and ESL students

Stanford Professor Guadalupe Valdes and ESL students.

English students need to advance through different learning levels. But Santamaria says in California, earning those credits can be a lot more complicated than it would appear. Community colleges and adult schools both teach English, but they do so on parallel tracks and usually focus on slightly different populations.  Currently, some don’t recognize transfer credits – a challenge the community foundation is working to address on a regional level, and one that would affect Puente as well.

“These systems are massive, but through the learning cohorts they’ve started to plan together,” says Santamaria.

Transportation is another issue. Cañada College offers a popular ESL class in Half Moon Bay thanks to a grant from the Workforce Investment Act, but many Pescadero residents don’t have the means of transportation to attend. Other schools are “over the hill” in San Mateo or Los Altos.

“Agricultural and rural communities on the coast need to benefit from what’s happening on this side of the Bay,” adds Santamaria, referring to the fact that language schools are more plentiful in urban areas.

Support from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the Zellerbach Foundation provide much needed funding to Puente in a time of growing demand for ESL classes.

Click here for Puente’s fall schedule of classes or contact Kassi Talbot at ktalbot@mypuente.org or (650)879-1691 ext.138.