One in four Dallas residents are foreign born, and nearly 11 percent of Dallas residents are eligible for citizenship. Applying for citizenship is a long and complicated process that should be overseen by legal experts. Unfortunately, Dallas has a thriving "notario" industry that defrauds and misinforms many of these immigrants striving to be naturalized. Access to free reliable legal assistance lowers the fear and barriers many immigrants face on their journey to citizenship.

DPL works closely with Catholic Charities to provide citizenship classes. With the Dallas Office of Welcoming Communities and Immigrant Affairs, the library and its partners saw an opportunity to hold large-scale events to help citizenship applicants with straight-forward cases to be processed during a single event. WCIA and Catholic Charities worked to train over 100 volunteers and dozens of lawyers to assist with citizenship applications during a Mega Citizenship Workshop at the Central Library.

Over 200 citizenship applications were reviewed in a single day. Many applicants were referred to immigration partners if their cases were too complicated to process during the workshop. Many immigration partners that charge nominal fees agreed to waive them for referrals from the workshop. Nearly 100 individuals were lined up outside the library hours before it opened, proving the need for assistance is great. DPL, WCIA and partners are currently planning regular future events.