Darius Assemi of Granville Homes has donated $120,000 toward the new immigration law clinic at the San Joaquin College of LawA clinic housed in the San Joaquin College of law received $120,000 from Fresno’s Granville Homes to support its work in assisting U.S .immigrants seeking citizenship.
The new American Legal Clinic officially opened in January to provide legal immigrants with free information and counseling as they labor through the process to become citizens.
The clinic also seeks legal status for victims of violent crimes and immigrants wishing to work in the U.S. lawfully, while training budding lawyers attending San Joaquin College of Law in Fresno in the area of immigration law.
Granville Homes President Darius Assemi said he made the donation to help others achieve the same kind of success that the U.S. has afforded him since moving here from Iran in 1978.
Assemi earned his civil engineering degree from California State University, Fresno in 1983 and began working for Granville Homes, a family-owned homebuilder. After rising up the ranks with the company, he became president in 2009.
“We understand the challenges, especially for those who don’t understand the laws,” Assemi said in a press release. Immigration is very complicated, and we want to help assure legal residents seeking to become U.S. citizens don’t get abused.”
A study last July by the Public Policy Institute of California showed that the number of immigrants to California increased from 1.8 million to 10 million while 46 percent of those have become naturalized U.S. citizens.
However, the study state that few of those reside in places like Fresno where there is still very limited access to information and support to effectively navigate the immigration process.
Between 2001 and 2009, the number of new and non-U.S. citizens in Fresno County climbed by 14.3 percent.