Thread: Latinos Seek Citizenship in Time for Voting!

Well, this is no surprise! "Today we march; tomorrow we vote!" And they intend to do just that!!! I wonder how many of these future 'citizens' speak English, much less have an understanding of the politics in this country. What a scam!!!


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March 7, 2008

Latinos Seek Citizenship in Time for Voting
By JULIA PRESTON

A lawsuit filed Thursday in a federal court in New York by Latino immigrants seeks to force immigration authorities to complete hundreds of thousands of stalled naturalization petitions in time for the new citizens to vote in November.

The class-action suit was brought by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund on behalf of legal Hispanic immigrants in the New York City area who are eager to vote and have been waiting for years for the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services agency to finish their applications. The suit demands that the agency meet a nationwide deadline of Sept. 22 to complete any naturalization petitions filed by March 26.

Latino groups hope to summon the clout of the federal courts to compel the Bush administration to reduce a backlog of citizenship applications that swelled last year. According to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, more than one million citizenship petitions were backed up in the pipeline by the end of December, the majority from Latino immigrants.

Despite protests over the delays from lawmakers, Latino groups and immigrant advocates, the immigration agency is currently projecting wait times of 16 months to 18 months to process the petitions.

“The reality is that large numbers of Latinos will not be able to vote in the elections because of these delays,â€

[quote]“It is astonishing the government should be so unresponsive to immigrants who have enthusiastically taken all the steps to become Americans,â€

[quote]“It is astonishing the government should be so unresponsive to immigrants who have enthusiastically taken all the steps to become Americans,â€