Eric Cohen

Across the nation, 8.8 million immigrants are eligible to apply to become U.S. citizens. In this video, Eric Cohen, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), describes the importance of supporting this population to “take that next step to be part of the American dream.” “Immigration is the fuel for a country like the United States to keep progressing,” says Cohen, citing the skills, the ideas and the “cultural power” that immigrants have always brought this nation. In addition to supporting immigrants to become citizens, Cohen says the immigrant rights movement and its partners in philanthropy must keep fighting to help immigrants protect themselves so they can keep their families together at a time when the federal government is ramping up arrests and deportations.