Nashville has united with a coalition of cities that have teamed up to help and encourage immigrants to apply for US citizenship. The decision that the city would join Cities for Citizenship was announced by the administration of Mayor Karl Dean yesterday at Los Angeles’ National Immigrant Integration Conference.
“Cities for Citizenship aims match Nashville’s: making it easier for immigrants who are eligible for citizenship to reach that goal,” Dean says. “We’re proud to have joined Chicago and Los Angeles in turning our libraries into hubs for citizenship information this year, and we’ve done the same thing with our community centers. We look forward to working with other cities to keep doing more to welcome immigrants and ease their paths to citizenship.”
The aim of this national initiative is to increase US citizenship among eligible permanent residents by reaching out to share best programs and practices. Nashville was joined by Chattanooga, which also joined the coalition yesterday, with the number of cities in the group now reaching 14. The mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti and the mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, all co-chair the initiative.
Last week Nashville was visited by President Obama to deliver a speech regarding his decision to take executive action on immigration reform. There are around 18,000 immigrants eligible for US citizenship in Nashville and the city boasts one of the country’s fastest growing immigrant populations.