Astoria-Based Immigrant Advocacy Group Gets $40K Grant

ASTORIA, QUEENS -- Immigrants and refugees who've grown anxious about "uncertain" futures in the can take comfort that one Queens group will continue to advocate for them, thanks to an extra $40,000 the nonprofit secured in state funding.

New York State Senator Jose Peralta (D-Jackson Heights) said he secured the state funds on Friday for the Center for the Integration and Advancement of New Americans. The decade-old nonprofit in Astoria offers legal aid, U.S. citizenship classes, tutoring and other services to U.S. immigrants and refugees.

State funding helped CIANA offer immigration legal services to 225 new clients over the last year, and will allow the nonprofit to further grow that number over the next year, said founder and CEO Emira Habiby Browne.

The funds are a welcome bit of help during what Browne called "particularly difficult and uncertain times" for immigrants living in the United States.

"Our immigrant families are experiencing so much anxiety about the future of their children and family members, and look to community-based organizations like CIANA for guidance and support in these difficult times," Browne said.

Peralta said securing the funds has been among his trop priorities under a federal administration that's grown "hostile and unreal" toward its immigrants and refugees.

"We must never forget that immigrants built this City and the entire country, and our doors must remain open to all," Peralta said. "With the funds I was able to secure, CIANA will keep providing vital services to assist immigrants.”

Lead photo courtesy of the Office of Sen. Jose Peralta.