Charlotte is preparing to create a new Office of International Relations, which will help strengthen the relationship between the local government and immigrant communities, as well as the municipality's ability to respond to circumstances that may affect them in the future.
The proposal, submitted by the councilor for District 5, Juan Diego Mazuera Arias, is part of newly approved budget by the Charlotte City Council and comes after the city approved a $100,000 fund to help the affected families by migration operation carried out in November, which was unsuccessful due to the established requirements.
The new office will integrate community engagement, immigrant integration, relations with local organizations, and the economic development of international communities. The plan involves hiring a manager and two staff members to develop the department's initiatives.
Mazuera Arias said during an interview with Enlace Latino NC The creation of this office aims to ensure that the city has better tools to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population and respond more effectively to future emergencies.
“I am hopeful that, with an office dedicated to international relations, the city will be better prepared in case a situation like the one we saw in November is repeated,” the councilman said.
The precedent of the $100,000 emergency fund
The initiative comes after the city faced difficulties in implementing a f$100,000 emergency fund approved by the City Council in December to help families affected by the Operation “Charlotte’s Web” of the Border Patrol in Charlotte.
Although the fund was approved in response to the arrests and climate of uncertainty Experienced by many immigrant families, the resources never reached the affected population.
Recently, local media They reported that the money was neither used nor distributed among the people affected by the operation.
Mazuera Arias He explained that the funds were not a grant for community organizations, but public resources intended for direct assistance to families.
Because the money was provided from a municipal program of housing assistanceThere were specific restrictions on the use of public resources.
The requirements to access the aid were having a Social Security number and being over 18 years old, conditions that significantly limited access to funds for the affected families, mostly made up of undocumented immigrants. children of citizens under the age of majority.
“It’s valid to ask whether those criteria ended up excluding some of the people who needed help the most. The answer is yes, and that’s a conversation we need to have honestly,” the councilman stated.
According to him, only three families met the established requirements to receive assistance.
Legal limitations and political pressure
The councilman said that the municipal administration was “under the microscope” of the state and faced possible scrutiny from state and federal authorities, because public funds cannot be given to people who are undocumented.
“What was concerning was that we had the state auditor, who is a Republican, investigating the city about its financial management, specifically, how the $100,000 was being used,” said the councilman, who is of Colombian origin.
The city had to balance the need for support immigrant families with the obligation to comply with the rules governing the use of public funds, the official said.
“Let’s be realistic, unfortunately, and I repeat: the limitations were that the families impacted were undocumented immigrants, many of them with U.S. citizen children under 18. We faced the risk of the city being punished by the federal government,” Mazuera Arias noted.
“I do not agree with punishing a city for trying to help families who live, work, pay taxes and contribute to our economy every day,” he added.
Responding from the community sector
Given the impossibility of using municipal resources, Crisis Assistance MinistryA local organization, commissioned by the city to administer the program, decided to help the three eligible families with its own funds.
“They told us that they could help those three families with their funds without the restriction of public funds, because they are a non-profit organization that depends on private donations,” Mazuera Arias commented.
The councilman acknowledged that the program did not produce the expected results and took responsibility for the failure in its design and implementation.
“We acknowledge and take full responsibility that the $100,000 program was not implemented in the most effective way,” he told us.
After the city approved the funds in December, four local organizations were appointed to serve as points of contact with families who might be eligible. However, only the Latin American Coalition qualified to do this job.
At the same time, the requirements and the lack of a clear plan for delivering the funds to the affected families, generated uncertainty and raised questions from community organizations and leaders.
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Preparing for future emergencies
For Mazuera Arias, the difficulties in implementing the fund highlighted the need for a specialized municipal structure to better coordinate the relationship with immigrant communities and the organizations that represent them.
The future Office of International Relations aims to fill that institutional gap and improve the city's ability to act more quickly and effectively when extraordinary situations affect immigrant residents.
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