Oak Park leaders voted to provide over $70,000 in village funds to three charities which declined to accept federal community development grants over a new immigration-related provision.
Each year, Oak Park disperses U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant funds to local community organizations. The village identified nine local charities supporting a variety of causes for 2025’s round of grant funding, but three service organizations ultimately refused to accept the funds because of new federal grant program rules related to immigration, according to village documents.
Federal guidelines now require that individual clients benefiting from the CDBG funds be verified as U.S. Citizens with the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE immigration status verification tool.
On Jan. 15, Oak Park officials reportedly met with local grant recipient organizations to go over the new federal requirements before the grant agreements were signed. Following that meeting, three groups — youth mentoring charity YEMBA, Hephzibah Children’s Association and the Infant Welfare Society Children’s Clinic —opted not to sign the grant agreements over the immigration rule, according to village staff.
“They were not aware when they applied for those agreements and when we awarded those funds that those requirements would be in place,” said Jonathan Burch, Oak Park’s neighborhood services director. “We envision this as a one-time allocation, because grantees should be aware of this going into next year.”
In lieu of the charities signing the federal grant agreements, the village is providing the three charities with grants straight from Oak Park’s existing fund balance. Oak Park’s village board approved the alternative funding approach unanimously, voting on it nearly five hours into a March 10 board meeting.
Hephzibah Children’s Association will receive $30,000 in village funds, while YEMBA will receive $20,000 and the Infant Welfare Society Children’s Clinic will receive $20,161, according to village documents.
Trustee Brian Straw criticized the federal change as an “overstep” meant to put more pressure on immigrant communities amid DHS’ ongoing mass deportation efforts. He said the village should look to use village funds to support service organizations like this again in the future.
“This is the federal government overstepping and looking to prevent local organizations from delivering services to our immigrant neighbors,” said Straw, who’s under a federal criminal indictment stemming from an anti-DHS protest he participated in at the Broadview ICE facility last September. “Dollars are fungible, but the delivery of these necessary services, sometimes lifesaving services, to our migrant neighbors is not. We need to be thoughtful about how we can use CDBG funds in a way that isn’t putting pressure on not-for-profit organizations that limits their delivery of services to immigrant neighbors because what the federal government is doing is unconscionable.”
Oak Park’s Welcoming Ordinance, which bars village resources from being used to aid civil immigration inquiries, is superseded by the federal rule in this case, according to village documents.
“The Welcoming Ordinance includes section 13-7-4 that prohibits the village from conditioning the access to benefits on citizenship or immigration status ‘unless required to do so by statute, federal regulation, or an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.’ In this case, federal enforcement of a federal regulation is requiring the village to document the conditioning of benefits under PRWORA via the SAVE system.”
Service organizations Beyond Hunger, Housing Forward, NAMI Metro Suburban, North West Housing Partnership, UCP Seguin of Greater Chicago and the Way Back Inn signed CDBG agreements with the village.
