c. 2008 Religion News Service

ORLANDO, Fla. _ Adelino Najarro emigrated from Mexico four years ago. Without a job, he said, life was difficult in his country.

Today, to make a living, he works in a restaurant kitchen. And to improve his English, he goes to church.

Twice a week, Iglesia Forest City in northwest Orlando partners with the local school district to offer English-language classes. On one recent evening, Najarro, 29, was among nearly two dozen Spanish speakers who turned out for class. The church also offers a food bank, speakers on the naturalization process and has plans to offer GED classes.

“We the church are the first contact with the United States,” said the Rev. Santiago Panzardi, the church’s senior pastor and president of the Hispanic Christian Church Association of Central Florida. “The first place they knock is the church.”

Now there’s someone else knocking at the church door _ the federal government _ but they insist they’re not looking to check immigrants’ legal papers. They’re looking to help.

Washington is lending its help to churches and religious groups that offer services to immigrants. It’s a welcome gesture for many, but for some, it may not be enough to assuage deep-rooted distrust among immigrants and their advocates.

During each of the past five years, some 1 million immigrants were granted permanent resident status in the U.S., according to Alfonso Aguilar, chief of the Office of Citizenship within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. Yet only 1.2 million are currently enrolled in government-sponsored ESL programs, and more than 60 percent of those programs have waiting lists extending months or more.

“Many times that doorway into the community is a church,” Aguilar said. “Immigrants sometimes don’t feel comfortable going to a government office or an adult education program, but they feel comfortable going to a church. So it’s very important to reach out to the faith-based community.”

In 2006, as protests over federal immigration policy roiled the country, President Bush established a Task Force on New Americans aimed at finding better ways to help immigrants settle into American society. Partnering with community organizations such as churches and religious groups was one recommendation.

Since then, government-sponsored Web sites (http://www.welcometousa.gov and citizenshiptoolkit.gov) offer free resources for community organizations such as churches and religious groups, including a guide on the naturalization exam and information on housing, health care, financial literacy and ESL programs. There are multi-media materials that offer immigrants a crash course in American civics.

Aguilar and members of his office are traveling nationwide appealing to religious leaders to join the outreach. Dozens of training workshops since last October have drawn educators from church volunteers to librarians.

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Aguilar’s office also is partnering with USA Freedom Corps, established by President Bush after 9/11 to promote volunteerism, to encourage work on immigration issues. The two agencies publish public service announcements and list churches and religious groups in an online database to help connect would-be volunteers. The next plan calls for a manual designed for churches and religious groups on how to establish ESL and naturalization programs.

The office offers no financial help, but grants are available from other agencies.

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“The recognition and any support that the government can provide for efforts that are being made at the private level to bring immigrants into the mainstream of U.S. society _ that’s really our shared and common goal,” said Aaron Gershowitz, director of refugee and immigrant services for HIAS, a 127-year-old, New York-based immigrant aid society that specializes in Jewish immigration but also assists other populations.

Still, others wonder whether advocates and immigrants harbor too much distrust for the government for the two groups to work effectively together.

“Right now, the level of trust in respect to clergy as it pertains to the federal government is zero to none,” said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. “We have to address the issue of deportation. We have to address the issue that Homeland Security has interrogated denominational leaders and pastors asking for information on whether parishioners … have expired visas.”

At Iglesia Forest City, which is affiliated with a Puerto Rico-based Pentecostal denomination, most parishioners are Puerto Rican, which automatically makes them U.S. citizens. But trust remains an issue. Panzardi, the pastor, agrees with Washington’s overall mission but remains frustrated efforts at immigration reform have stalled.

“There is nothing that the government can offer immigrants,” he said, explaining any reform probably will remain on hold until after the presidential election.

Once immigrants learn they won’t be asked about their immigration status at Iglesia Forest City, word travels quickly, said Jacqueline Centeno, the church’s ESL teacher and a school district employee.

Najarro, the immigrant kitchen worker, has been coming to the classes for two years.

“Es muy importante,” he said.

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A photo of the Rev. Panzardi is available via https://religionnews.com.