Thread: 2.5 million applications for citizenship

2.5 million applications for citizenship, visas flood into immigration agency
By Julia Preston, New York Times
Last update: November 22, 2007 – 8:17 PM

In the 2007 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, the agency received 1.4 million petitions from legal immigrants to become U.S. citizens, about double the number of naturalization petitions in the 2006 fiscal year, Wright said.

The surge began after Jan. 31 when the immigration agency announced fee increases averaging 66 percent for most applications, official figures show. The increases went into effect July 30. The contentious tenor of the immigration debate also prompted legal immigrants to apply for citizenship.

The deluge has been so great that the agency is struggling to send out notices acknowledging it has received the applications. According to a special Web page the agency set up for applicants, as of Nov. 16 the agency's processing center in Texas is sending out receipts for naturalization petitions that arrived by July 26.

Green card applications

Also contributing to the surge are about 300,000 applications in July and August for legal permanent resident visas, commonly known as green cards, from highly skilled immigrants. The jump in applications for the employment-based green cards resulted from the resolution of a mix-up in June between Immigration and Citizenship Services and the State Department, which is responsible for making visas available. The agencies had first invited the applications, then said they would not be accepted. They then reversed course, agreeing to accept them.

Immigration officials said it could take more than a year to decide many of the recent applications.

The processing backlogs are different from the visa backlogs that have burdened the U.S. immigration system for years. Because of annual limits on all green cards, immigrants from some countries such as Mexico and the Philippines often have to wait decades for visas to become available. Now the agency has fallen behind on the bureaucratic work of logging in applications and deciding whether to grant visas or allow immigrants to become U.S. citizens.

In addition to the fee increase, the rush of naturalization requests was also prompted by anti-immigrant language in the debate over immigration policy this year, lawyers and advocates for immigrants said. Also, the immigration authorities are preparing a new, more difficult test for aspiring citizens, which they unveiled in September.

'People running like mad'

"People are scared," said Ignacio Donoso, an immigration lawyer at the Monty Partners firm in Houston. "And they want to avoid the fees, and they do not want to face a more demanding test. So you are going to have people running like mad to apply, yet the government doesn't hire any more staff to handle it."

Citizenship and Immigration Services is required by Congress to draw most of its operating budget from fees. When the agency head, Emilio T. Gonzalez, announced the fee increases in January, he pledged the agency would become more efficient and reduce wait times for deciding applications. Fees for naturalization, for example, increased 66 percent, to $675 from $405.

The agency plans to use the higher revenues to hire 1,500 employees, an increase of about 10 percent over its current staff of 15,000, Wright said.

Immigration officials said they would work to complete naturalization petitions in time for new citizens to vote in the elections next November.
http://www.startribune.com/484/story/1568180.html

They are overwhelmed with applications....how in the world are they going to do thorough background checks on the applicants before granting them citizenship so they can vote in the 2008 election?

Someone really wants these votes badly!
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."
Abraham Lincoln

I wonder how many of these are members of "mixed households" who would wish to vote in politicians willing to amnesty their relatives? If so let us hope that SAVE passes and is not gutted by activist judges.

There will probably be plenty of extra people hired to process these applications but ICE is understaffed and overworked too, think they'll hire more help there?

2.5 Million plus all the Illegal Aliens flooding in......this is insane. Yea we do need Immigratiom reform as in a drastic reduction. Our immigration laws are too liberal, time for a change.

This is the way they are going to get amnesty -

This is the way they are going to beat us.

While they are waving the smokescreen of 'more border security' and 'build that fence - but we have to do so and so first' - they are making them citizens.

While they pretend they are rounding up illegals - and 'making employers accountable' - they are doing nothing but planting stories in the paper.

How many of those are illegals?

ICE is probably understaffed because they have them working on citizenship for illegals.