Churches, groups rally to help states vaccinate immigrants

Many feel grateful to get shots while amid community they trust.

Irma Delrosaria, 68, was amazed and grateful that her friends were able to get vaccinated in a few minutes at their church in a Baltimore neighborhood hit hard by COVID- 19, where many residents are Latin American immigrants living here illegally.

“I had to go all the way downtown and wait two hours in the cold. It was an ordeal,” said Delrosaria, a legal immigrant who moved from Guatemala three years ago. On a recent day, she waited outside as friends were getting their shots at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish. They said they were happy to be vaccinated in a convenient spot — especially among people they trust.

Some cities such as Chicago and states including Maryland and California are enlisting churches and community groups to help vaccinate immigrants. Churches and community groups can approve appointments for people they know are qualified, making the process less intimidating for some immigrants.

State and local governments hope these collaborations will help them better reach workers often classified as essential, working on farms and in restaurants and meat- processing plants – places where the work requires close contact with other people.

Genell Collins, a community organizer who supervises charitable food distribution in the Baltimore area, said that before the vaccines were offered at churches, residents “had to take two or three buses and expose themselves to all those people to get to a vaccination site. The inequity is just terrible.”

As vaccination progresses to include more people, including immigrants in other jobs, some advocates fear the disparities will only grow.

However, as restrictions ease, identification requirements may also relax because there won’t be as much need to verify eligibility, said Colin Milligan, a spokesperson for the American Hospital Association, a trade group.

“States vary in what they are asking vaccinators to ensure about eligibility,” Milligan said. “For now, with limited supply, states want to ensure that the vaccine they receive is going to somebody who meets the guidance. When everyone is eligible, things might change.”

PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS/ TNS Baltimore residents wait at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish complex, where the church and other groups know them and can quickly screen them for qualifying for the vaccine.