Thread: Applications for citizenship are up!!!

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washi ... hip_surge/

WASHINGTON -- Driven by the fierce congressional debate over immigration, immigrants nationwide are applying for US citizenship in record numbers or seeking to solidify their legal status in a move to protect themselves at a time of political uncertainty.

Many fear that laws could be strengthened , preventing them from becoming naturalized or from bringing relatives into the United States; others appear to be motivated by the chance to obtain more rights and boost their political clout through voting.

Between January and April, immigrants filed 251,385 applications, an 18 percent increase from the same period last year, immigration officials said Thursday. They also report ed a record surge in petitions to sponsor relatives for residency, also up 18 percent for the time period.

The number of visits to the agency's website increased to 6.3 million last month, up 12 percent from May of last year. Visitors downloaded 140,000 citizenship applications, nearly twice as many as a year before. The number of green card applications that were downloaded also rose significantly from May 2005.

``We saw a dramatically higher upswing than we have ever seen before," said Chris Bentley, a spokesman with US Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security.

The surge, immigration advocates said, reflects widespread uncertainty over the direction of the immigration legislation being debated in Congress. Although the political tussle centers on illegal immigrants, many non citizens residing in this country legally are concerned that they and their families, in the United States and in their homelands, could be affected.

``People get worried that they will change the rules and [that] the changing of the rules will impact them personally, in terms of their status," said Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois , who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Immigration Task Force. ``Immigration policy is complicated enough. If you're a recent immigrant legally here, the debate here is scary."

In January, about 50 people attended a ``citizenship workshop" at Hogar Hispano , an immigrant-services program run by Catholic Charities in Arlington, Va. At the workshop, volunteers helped eligible, permanent residents, those who have held green cards at least five years, fill out naturalization forms.

In March, 88 people showed up. Last month there were 92 -- the largest turnout coordinator Esmael Hussieni has seen in the nine years he has overseen the workshops. He said good weather and better marketing efforts played a role.

So did fear.

``Even lately, with the green card, people don't think it's going to be safe," he said.

In other parts of the country, groups working with immigrants said they are seeing similar jumps in applicants. In Chicago, more than 1,000 people showed up for a citizenship workshop April 29, said Gutierrez, who helped promote the event. They were expecting 300 to 400 applicants, he said.

The number of applicants had been rising steadily in recent years. The reasons include more nations permitting their citizens to hold dual nationality and US government cutbacks in social services and other benefits for non citizens.

In the past, fear has spurred surges in citizenship applications. After a 1994 California ballot initiative that was intended to cut services to undocumented immigrants, applications soared. The same happened after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as many immigrants wanted to show solidarity with their adopted homeland or to avoid a backlash.

This time, the surge can be traced back to mid-December, when the House of Representatives passed legislation to tighten border security and force employers to verify employee status, while rejecting an immigrant ``guest worker" plan.

``It sent a jolt of fear through many immigrant communities," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an advocacy group based in Washington. ``It was so draconian that people eligible to naturalize said, `We'd better take citizenship before they take that away from us.' "

Last month, the Senate passed legislation that offers a path to citizenship for many longtime illegal immigrants if they pay back taxes, learn English, and have committed no serious crimes. But the bill faces stiff opposition in the House.

People get worried that they will change the rules and [that] the changing of the rules will impact them personally, in terms of their status," said Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois , who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Immigration Task Force. ``Immigration policy is complicated enough. If you're a recent immigrant legally here, the debate here is scary."

Rules? What rules? Well we do have rules but nobody has been enforcing them. I hope they are scared. They should NOT BE HERE!!!

What will change in terms of their status? If they are here illegally now they will still be illegal if the house shoots down the travesty from the senate, no change there.

If the senate bill wins the day (God help us) then they get to stay and continue to live off the American taxpayer.

You are right about that what rules? Nobody enforces the immigration laws now. But I do agree they should be scared as the american citizens of this country have had enough of paying for them. The time has come to enforce the laws of this country and secure our borders from these foreign invaders

I thank all those anti-American hispanic jerks and their sympathizers and anchor babies everyday for going into the street for their protests....nothing could have helped us better in getting the attention of everyone in the country to this problem.

Hopefully something will be done to enforce our "rules" in the future.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... xl3j_vmv7Y

Legal Immigrants `Stuck' as U.S. Agencies Struggle With Backlog
June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Shilpa Ghodgaonkar, a 30-year-old computer engineer from India, filled out all the necessary forms to gain permanent residency in the U.S. in 2002 and began waiting for her application to be processed.

Three years and nine months later, she's still waiting. She and her husband, who works in information technology, ``are still stuck,'' she said. ``The system is already heavily backlogged.''

As Congress debates creating a guest-worker program and ponders what to do about undocumented foreigners living in the U.S., the agencies that oversee the current system of legal immigration are already ``plagued with delays and problems,'' said Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who's chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a bureau of the Department of Homeland Security, in April had 420,000 immigrant applications that had been waiting more than six months to be processed. The Labor Department, which also processes immigration cases, had a backlog of 235,000 applications last month.

A measure passed by the Senate would create a guest-worker program for 200,000 immigrants a year and allow many of the 11 million undocumented workers in the U.S. to apply for legal status. Negotiators from the House and Senate will work to reconcile the measure with a competing House proposal that lacks any guest-worker or legalization programs.

Any new programs will present ``a tremendous challenge,'' said Collins, who supports the Senate measure.

Hardships

A study last year by Congress's nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found that the application backlog ``has created hardships for immigrants, their families, and prospective employers seeking immigrant workers.'' Paul Jones, who directed the GAO study, said ``it's kind of intuitive to say if they get another unforeseen influx of applications, they're going to struggle to deal with that.''

Applications for ``adjustment of status,'' a step immigrants take to gain permanent residency, can take 119 weeks to process in New York and 64 weeks in Miami, according to the National Foundation for American Policy, an Arlington, Virginia-based group that researches trade and immigration issues.

`Tremendous Inroads'

Chris Bentley, a spokesman for the immigration agency, said it has made significant progress in reducing a backlog that totaled 3.8 million cases at the start of 2004. ``We've made tremendous inroads recently,'' he said, and the agency is aiming to clear its backlog by Oct. 1. The GAO report, though, suggested that the backlog was higher than the agency believed, and isn't likely to be cleared as quickly as it says.

``You can conclude from what we said in the report that they're struggling now,'' Jones said.

At the Labor Department, all 235,000 of the backed-up applications date from before the department began an electronic processing system in March 2005. The backlog is scheduled to be cleared by September 2007, the Department said.

Crystal Williams, deputy director for programs at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a Washington-based group of about 10,000 immigration attorneys, said her members believe that while Immigration Services may eliminate its application backlog this year, they're more concerned about progress at the Labor Department.

``Right now that's a tremendous problem,'' she said. ``They have this legacy that started as 360,000 cases that date back five or six years that they're still working their way through.''

Approval

The full process for immigrants in Ghodgaonkar's position to gain permanent residency approval is supposed to take about six months, said William Manning, an immigration lawyer with Jackson Lewis LLP in White Plains, New York. Instead, because of processing delays, it can take as long as 30 months, he said.

While Bentley said government officials are ``confident'' about being able to carry out any new immigration overhaul, Ghodgaonkar said she's skeptical. She said she has been unable to get any information from the government about the delay in her application and grew so frustrated that she helped form an advocacy group, Immigration Voice, to lobby lawmakers on the issue.

Manning said there's no way to track individual applications. That leads many immigrants, including Ghodgaonkar, to turn to elected representatives in Washington for help.

``Any congressional office will tell you that dealing with immigration casework is one of their biggest challenges, and has been for some time,'' Senator Collins said.

The delays in processing Ghodgaonkar's immigration forms mean she can't work in the U.S.; she is a volunteer vice president with Immigration Voice. She said the stories of long processing delays discourage other immigrants, she said.

Long waits for completed processing can also make it more difficult for immigrants to get bank accounts, apply for mortgages and qualify for in-state college tuition. Immigrants with jobs can't shift employers or get promotions, Williams said.

``It ties the hands of the employers, it ties the hands of the employees,'' Williams said.



To contact the reporter on this story:
Nicholas Johnston in Washington at
njohnston3@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 7, 2006 21:24 EDT