Immigrant communities in Fresno just got some national-level muscle from these local leaders

A federal agency has named two Fresno-area community leaders as citizenship ambassadors.

Margarita Rocha, director of Centro La Familia Advocacy Services, and Pao Yang, president and CEO of the Fresno Center, will help immigrants living in the San Joaquin Valley navigate the naturalization process through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ new citizenship ambassador initiative.

Rocha and Yang are among eight ambassadors selected from across the country.

USCIS selected the ambassadors based on the positions they hold in their communities, the number of people eligible for naturalization in their region, and the need for additional, local citizenship support. They will share their own experiences with the immigration and naturalization process as they work closely with USCIS staff to encourage community members to apply for citizenship. They’ll serve on a voluntary, unpaid basis.

For Rocha and Yang, the ambassadorship builds on their organizations’ work in Fresno. Both Centro la Familia and the Fresno Center have staff accredited by the U.S. Department of Justice to provide legal assistance in immigration matters.

The new ambassadors could have a significant impact in the Central Valley, where barriers such as language, accessibility, long bureaucratic processes and application fees often deter people from pursuing citizenship. An estimated 2.4 million people living in California are eligible to become U.S. citizens, including more than 23,000 people in Fresno County, according to USCIS.

“California itself is a leader in the immigrant population and the number of people that can become naturalized, and then be an active participant in the civics of our government and vote,” Rocha said. “That’s critically important, to be able to do that.”

Rocha supports immigrants through naturalization process

Rocha was born in Blythe and raised in Fresno. As a child, she served as an interpreter for her parents, who were immigrants.

“My parents are from Mexico and did not speak English,” she said. “I didn’t speak English until I actually went to school.”

Rocha experienced firsthand the hardships that immigrants endure in a new country.

“I’m very connected to some of the struggles that families experience as immigrants, because I lived it with my parents, not knowing the depth of what they were actually going through because I was obviously a child,” Rocha said.

She spent a decade working for the federal government in Washington D.C and Cleveland before returning to Fresno as Centro La Familia’s director in January 1993.

The organization provides those seeking naturalization an array of resources, including consultations and assistance with applications for residency permits and citizenship. As the organization’s leader, Rocha has increased staff and services focused on immigration, as well as victim services, policy, education and health in Fresno and across the Valley.

For some community members, anxiety and government mistrust are barriers to pursuing citizenship, Rocha said. She said in her new role, she intends to support immigrants — sometimes even being the “hand holder” — as they navigate the naturalization process.

Yang’s experiences with citizenship inform his work

Pao Yang and his family members fled Hmong persecution in war-torn Laos in 1975. They settled in refugee camps before immigrating to Kansas in 1979. He was 6 years old when they arrived in the U.S.

Of his 27 siblings, just 19 survived, he said.

Yang’s parents searched for relatives that had survived the war and in 1983, they found family members living in Fresno. But they didn’t immediately become citizens.

“It took us 20 years just to become U.S. citizens, not because we came here illegally, but because we didn’t have the knowledge, we didn’t have the education, we didn’t know how to navigate the naturalization process,” Yang said.

The Fresno Center opened in 1991 to help newly arrived Southeast Asian immigrants and refugees find community and resources in the region. Yang is now the organization’s third president and CEO.

The Fresno Center offers immigration and citizenship counseling, as well as services related to mental health and wellness, medical coverage, and utilities and rental assistance. It aims to create a support network for those seeking naturalization, Yang said.

“We need to make sure that we provide a safe space for them to come and get food, to meet with immigration folks, to express their concern and to be a shoulder for them to cry on when needed and to be that support, to be that cheerleader, to be that coach, to be that voice and to be that safe haven,” Yang said. “That’s why I’m here.”

Yang is optimistic that the ambassador program will benefit the Fresno community.

“This country was built upon immigrants,” Yang said. “This is a long time coming, it’s about time that the federal government reached out to local leaders like us who are entrenched in the community.”