Detroit Announces $750K Grant For Undocumented Residents

(CBS DETROIT) - A grant that can provide some financial relief for undocumented residents in the city of Detroit was announced Thursday.

Detroit was one of 20 cities awarded the Covid-19 UndocuFund.

"There's roughly 15.4 million families and individuals of mixed status who were not supported by federal CARE act money, they were left out of the programs created to support other families throughout the pandemic," said Detroit City Councilmember Raquel Castaneda-Lopez.

Castaneda-Lopez announced a $750,000 grant for undocumented Detroiters.

Members of the Detroit City Council Immigration Task Force will receive the grant from The Open Society Foundations Group or OSF.

"This is not only for the Latino community a lot of times when people talk about immigrants they think only of Latinos. This is also going to be helping the West African, Caribbean, Arab and Bengali communities," said Detroit Hispanic Development Corp. Executive Director Angie Reyes.  

The OSF Group has partnered with 19 other U.S. cities to provide the Covid-19 UndocuFund. Mayor Mike Duggan says the pandemic hit Detroiters hard, especially those without legal immigration status who were not able to benefit from federal funds.

"They didn't have the ability to fight back on that pain, that hardship with stimulus checks and unemployment checks because of their status," said Duggan.

Officials say they understand that a lot of undocumented residents may have concerns when applying for the program, but they assure them their information will remain confidential.

"We actually aren't keeping documents so people can show them, but we're not actually going to keep them on file," said Castaneda-Lopez.

The funds will be distributed to families only once with a maximum amount of $2,000.

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