Thread: Phoenix office reducing naturalization backlog

Phoenix office reducing naturalization backlog
by Daniel González - Jun. 14, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
The head of the federal immigration service said Friday that officials in Phoenix are working overtime to naturalize at least 15,000 immigrants this fiscal year as part of an effort to reduce massive backlogs.

The 15,000 naturalizations would represent nearly a 43 percent increase from the previous year, when the Phoenix office naturalized 10,500 immigrants, said Jonathan Scharfen, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

That would help assure that those who applied last year wanting to vote in the presidential election this November would be able to do so, he said.
Scharfen, who became acting director of USCIS in April, was in Arizona to monitor local efforts by immigration officials to reduce a large backlog of naturalization applications. He was in Phoenix on Friday after stopping in Tucson on Thursday.

"I've been pleased by what I saw," Scharfen said.

Scharfen said the Phoenix office had stepped up the processing of naturalization applications without compromising public safety or national security.

Like other immigration offices around the country, Phoenix was hit last year with a surge of naturalization applications, many from legal immigrants seeking to become U.S. citizens in time to avoid a 70 percent fee hike and to vote in the November election.

The surge boosted the wait time in Phoenix for naturalization applications to be processed to 14 months, among the longest in the nation.

The long waits in Phoenix and around the country prompted a national outcry from immigrants and advocacy groups, some of which accused the Bush administration of intentionally dragging its feet to prevent thousands of immigrants from becoming citizens in time to vote for Democrats in presidential and other elections.

On Friday, Scharfen called those accusations unfounded.

He agreed, however, that the long waits were "unacceptable" and said that immigrants living in the greatest immigrant nation on Earth deserved a first-class immigration service.

Since the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, immigration officers in Phoenix have put in over 1,000 overtime hours to reduce the backlog. The office also added 36 employees, bringing the total to 107, Scharfen said.

As a result, immigration officials expect the wait time in Phoenix to drop from 14 months to less than 10 months by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

Scharfen said that means most of the nearly 16,000 immigrants who applied to become U.S. citizens during the previous fiscal year should be processed in time to vote on Nov. 4. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 6.

An immigrant advocate said she was pleased by the government's efforts to reduce the backlogs.

"I'm really glad that the clamoring by organizations . . . and the community in general has had positive results," said Monica Sandschafer, head organizer of Arizona ACORN, a grassroots organization that holds citizenship classes.


Reach the reporter at daniel.gonzalez@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8312


http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoe ... e0614.html

The head of the federal immigration service said Friday that officials in Phoenix are working overtime to naturalize at least 15,000 immigrants this fiscal year as part of an effort to reduce massive backlogs.

Who do they think their kidding ? Same Scam that L.A pulled with their 18,000 at one time easy drive in pay money , drive out a Citizen. This Country is really in the Crapper when it comes to our own Officials being law binding . Anything for money ! That for sure means Illegals as cheap as they work .