BERWYN – State Senator Javier Cervantes secured nearly $22,000 for seven local public school libraries.

“Young people need access to a wide variety of reading materials and technology to fuel their curiosity,” said Cervantes (D-Chicago). “Investing in our libraries will ensure young learners have access to the materials they need to succeed, and develop a lifelong love of reading."

More than $1.3 million was awarded to 2,484 Illinois public school libraries through the Secretary of State’s School District Library Grant Program. Resources and services supported through the grant include library books, e-books, audiobooks, periodicals, multilingual materials, technology and programs.

SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Javier Loera Cervantes’ legislation expanding protections for immigrant workers from wrongful workplace retaliation due to issues with their paperwork has passed the Senate, making it one step closer to becoming law.

“As the son of a single immigrant mother, I know firsthand how committed immigrant workers are to doing good work and creating a better life for themselves and their families. Their place in the workforce should not come into question due to misfiled paperwork,” said Cervantes (D-Chicago).  “I am proud this bill will ensure immigrant workers can receive support from legal experts if their E-Verify status is called into question, and help them sort out discrepancies before losing their livelihood over a misunderstanding.”

Federal immigration law requires employers to verify the legal work status of their employees through the E-Verify system, which compares information from an employee’s I-9 Form to records available to the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to confirm eligibility. If discrepancies are found, immigrant workers have the possibility of receiving a “no match” letter for a variety of reasons, including instances where the individual changed their name due to marriage. Many employers terminate employees upon receiving this notice, even though they could be legally working in the United States.

SPRINGFIELD – Applicants for the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) grants may soon see faster turnarounds on their approvals, thanks to a new initiative led by State Senator Javier Cervantes.

“Grant applicants and workers are suffering from the burden of relying on volunteers to grade ICJIA grant applications,” said Cervantes (D-Chicago). “With this legislation, both parties will see a faster turnaround time, and not need to deal with unnecessary stress.”

Currently, ICJIA is required to utilize volunteer workers to score grant applications, a rule intended to keep the process unbiased. However, this can lead to lengthy delays due to dips in volunteer work, or unreliable expertise levels in the grading process.

SPRINGFIELD –To ensure dental patients do not have to pay the bill for their visits out of pocket until their claim is processed, State Senator Javier Cervantes is working on legislation that would require insurance to cover visits immediately.

“Patients should not have to worry about a shelling out a majority of their paycheck from visiting a dentist when they have dental insurance,” said Cervantes (D-Chicago). “Thanks to this measure, their visits will be automatically paid by insurance, without making patients go through the reimbursement process.”

Without this legislation, dental insurance carriers would only be required to cover the cost of the visit—but it is unspecified if they need to pay the providers directly, or just reimburse the patient for their visit. This means many insurance plans do not immediately pay for a patient’s treatment, and leave them to cover the bill after the visit, only to reimburse them months later.