One-woman program helps immigrants through the citizenship maze

Foreground, from left, Vannak Path, and her friend Phouhet Souvorachak hug sitting next to Souvorachak's husband Sangjan Buasin after all three Ithacans bacame United State citizens' Thursday at the Tompkins County Courthouse. All three were assisted in the process by Catholic Charities of Tompkins/Tioga, through their new state grant funded program. / SIMON WHEELER / STAFF PHOTO

Newest citizens get helping hand from Catholic Charities

Aug. 4, 2011
Written by Matt Hayes
Ithaca Journal

Faced with countless forms written in a second language and fees hard to afford -- plus the threat of a test at the conclusion -- many immigrants and refugees find the citizenship process daunting.

For 13 of the 38 newest citizens sworn in Thursday afternoon at the Tompkins County Courthouse, however, the process became a bit easier thanks to the support of the Immigrant Services Program at Catholic Charities of Tompkins/Tioga.

The citizenship program, headed and run solely by director Sue Chaffee, provides guidance and encouragement to residents ready to become citizens. The process can be a scary one, from concerns about wading through the paperwork to paying the $638 application fee.

"People have misconceptions of how horrible it is," Chaffee said. "Helping them understand the process, making them feel comfortable," is one of the biggest parts of her job, she said. She has heard from immigrants who wrongly think that accepting food stamps disqualifies them from citizenship. Low-income applicants may have the fee waived, something Chaffee has helped 65 percent of prospective citizens achieve.

Bolstered by a five-year grant of $310,000 last October from New York State's Citizenship Initiative Program, Chaffee has helped file more than 60 citizenship applications, with more on the way.

Administered by the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), the local Catholic Charities office was one of 12 non-profits to receive the grant and the only one in upstate New York.

Marc Kaplan, director of public information at OTDA, explained that putting the money to work at the local level allows non-profits "to target to the need and the population," better than the state can. "We believe local organizations can determine effectively how to best provide service."

For Cambodian refugee Sophana Oung, one of the county's newest citizens and a recipient of support from Catholic Charities, the program's success came in the form of hope after 27 years in the country. She fled the Cambodian killing fields in the 1970s and stayed four years in Thailand before gaining entrance to the U.S.

Raising a family and working in car sales and food service at Cornell University left little time or money to begin the citizenship process. The paperwork, she said, seemed too demanding, the fee too expensive.

Chaffee helped get the fee waived based on Oung's income level. Flashcards provided by the program helped Oung learn the facts for the test. And it was phone calls from Chaffee, reminding her of dates and lending encouragement, that made the process manageable and the thought of citizenship possible.

"I realized I had lived here longer than I had anywhere," she said. It was when her daughter, Kimberly, who was born in United States and is an American citizen, told her about the help at Catholic Charities that she finally felt the push to get her citizenship. That, she said, and the longing of having watched members of her family travel to Cambodia, as citizenship now means a passport and the chance to start saving toward a trip to her old homeland that she hasn't seen in decades.

With a rose pinned to her shirt and her official documents clutched in her hands, she struggled to articulate her emotions about her status as a new citizen. Perhaps she may have had more adjectives to use in her native language, but the words she managed summed up the pride at her achievement: "I'm just so happy," she said.