The First State launched its Office of New Americans this month. Its role is to serve and support the immigrant community.
About 11% of Delaware residents are immigrants. That’s more than 115 thousand people who contribute to Delaware socially and economically, according to the Office of New Americans director Rony Baltazar-Lopez.
Baltazar-Lopez, a son of immigrants, said he’s excited for the opportunity to lead the Office and empower immigrants. Just how it will do that will be decided by Delaware’s immigrant community.
“Right now, we're trying to establish a listening tour to understand the needs and the priorities of our immigrant community first, before we start detailing what the role of the office will be,” Baltazar-Lopez said.
The Office hasn’t set dates for the statewide listening tour yet. Baltazar-Lopez said the Office will start the tour in the new year to avoid conflicts during the holiday season.
The Office has been in the works for years, with legislation introduced in 2023 and last year but never voted on. Gov. Matt Meyer instead created the office within the Dept. of State.
Delaware’s workforce includes almost 80 thousand immigrants, including about 7 thousand entrepreneurs. And their contributions to the state are massive, with a spending power of about $4.2 billion in 2023.
“So we know [...] the strength of the immigrant community in Delaware economically,” Baltazar-Lopez said. “So the last part was just that we just want to find ways to integrate our Delaware immigrants into the workforce and job opportunities because we know that Delaware is an aging state. And so it's critical for immigrants to fill some of those vacancies.”
And it’s an especially turbulent time to be in the U.S. as an immigrant with increased ICE arrests and deportations.
Baltazar-Lopez said the Office has limited jurisdiction to work with or against the federal government. Delaware already put protections in place for immigrants, including a House bill passed earlier this year that bans police departments from entering into partnerships with ICE.
“The state, generally speaking, is supportive of immigrants, and we want to make sure that they feel safe in our communities to send their kids to school and to go to work,” Baltazar-Lopez said. “And so this office, we hope, serves as a partnership to the Delaware General Assembly.”
The Town of Camden established a 287(g) agreement with ICE in April. The partnership gave local officers the ability to partner with ICE and enforce federal immigration laws. Only after the agreement received public attention did the police department walk back on its agreement.
Gov. Meyer signed the bill prohibiting these partnerships into law July 14.
“That was an important step for immigrant communities because we know that a lot of them during the first few months of the new Trump administration were scared to go to work, scared to send their kids to school, scared to, in some cases report crimes because there was no law in the state of Delaware prohibiting law enforcement agencies from engaging with ICE,” Baltazar-Lopez said.
About 24 states have similar departments, and they largely focus on workforce development and the citizenship process.
