CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, November 20, 2017 — This past fall, The Resurrection Project opened a new office space for its immigration clinic and hired two new staff members. This expansion further strengthened our position as a leader in providing undocumented individuals across Chicago access to legal counsel.  These recent expansions allow TRP to increase its reach to the immigrant community by serving more clients and improving our clients’ overall experience. TRP’s immigration services range from providing educational workshops on a variety of topics (such as wealth preservation) to providing direct legal services for adjustment of status, U-Visa petitions, naturalization, and more.

The increased capacity allowed TRP to implement a rapid response to President Trump’s decision to rescind the DACA program this past September. TRP, in partnership with Univision, launched DACA Tuesdays to reach Univision’s audience with accurate information. Additionally, TRP held over 50 hours of clinics throughout our service footprint, served over 300 people through legal services efforts and submitted over 100 DACA renewal applications to USCIS during a one-month period.  These operations were funded in large part by a $10,000 rapid response grant from Illinois Immigration Funders Collaborative (IFC). “For more than four years, IFC invested nearly $3 million in funding for DACA, including support of TRP’s excellent immigration legal services. We felt it was important to give as many people as possible the opportunity to remain in this country,” said IFC manager, Alice Cottingham. “Given TRP’s strong track record of empowering the community, we knew we could trust them to use the money well.”

TRP also raised an additional $40,000 in donations through its DACA Fund to give scholarships for the USCIS renewal fees. Local businesses such as Simone’s Bar in Pilsen and others assisted the fund’s efforts by hosting fundraisers.

This initiative is part of our Vision 2020 Strategic Plan which is directly supported from the many donors and supporters that contribute to our Imagine More Campaign. TRP would especially like to thank IFC, Juntos Podemos, the initiative of Parents Alliance and Integra Institute, and Pritzker Traubert Family Foundation for their unique support.