DOGE cuts Greensboro-based citizenship education program

A federal grant that supported a Greensboro citizenship education program for legal permanent residents has been terminated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

The program is a collaboration between the New Arrivals Institute (NAI) and University of North Carolina at Greensboro, providing legal and educational services to people navigating the U.S. citizenship process. 

Juliet Biemiller, with NAI, says the Department of Homeland Security awarded it a two-year $300,000 grant three separate times, most recently late last year. That all ended with an email.

“It said that the programs paid for by this award no longer effectuate the priorities of this department,” she says. 

The message directed the agency to cease all work by the end of the day. And Biemiller wasn’t the only one who got it — many other organizations had been CC’d on the same email. 

The DOGE website shows dozens of organizations that were part of the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program received termination notices on the same day. Biemiller says she sees the move as an attack on legal immigration.

“It takes sometimes, like 20 years for refugees to get granted entry into the US," she says. "And then to cut off all the services that support them in becoming successful U.S. citizens, successful participants in our society — it's just counterproductive.”

Free legal services at the organization have been eliminated as a result of the changes. One of three offered citizenship classes was cancelled too, at a time of increasing popularity. 

“Right now, we have more people than ever signed up for our citizenship classes and really eager, if not desperate, to solidify their immigration status because of all the fear in the immigrant community right now.”

Biemiller says the organization is bracing for further cuts.