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Title: Uncertainty spurs immigrants in U.S. legally to seek citizenship
Source:
www.registerguard.com
URL Source: http://www.registerguard.com/news/2 ... 05.p1.php?section=nation_world
Published: Jul 5, 2007
Author: Julia Preston
Post Date: 2007-07-05 14:42:36 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 126
Comments: 2
The number of legal immigrants seeking to become U.S. citizens is surging, officials say, prompted by imminent increases in fees to process naturalization applications, citizenship drives across the country and new feelings of insecurity among immigrants. The citizenship campaigns have tapped into the uneasiness that legal immigrants, especially Hispanics, say is a result of months of debate over an immigration bill that failed last week in the Senate. More than 4,000 new Americans were sworn in Wednesday in tradition-steeped - and some not so traditional - Fourth of July ceremonies. About 1,000 people from 75 countries took their oaths together under the spires of Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., as Gloria Estefan sang ``The Star-Spangled Banner.'' In Iraq, 325 foreign-born soldiers who are fighting in the U.S. military took the oath of allegiance in two separate ceremonies. Although illegal immigrants were the center of attention in the debate, it prompted many legal immigrants who have put down roots here to seek the security of citizenship, as well as its voting power, immigrants' advocates said. The numbers of new naturalized citizens have steadily grown, to 702,589 last year from 463,204 in 2003. A big jump occurred this year, with the number of applications increasing every month, to 115,175 in May compared with 65,782 in December. For many legal immigrants, worry about their futures in the United States turned into action after an announcement on Jan. 31 by Citizenship and Immigration Services that it would increase application fees. Under the new fees, which take effect on July 30, it will cost $675 to become a naturalized citizen, up 69 percent from $400. Immigrants also have been mobilized to press naturalization applications by a television and radio campaign that Univision, the national Spanish-language network, launched in January in California. The campaign, promoted by personalities such as Eduardo Sotelo, a radio host in Los Angeles known as El Piolin (Tweety Bird), has directed immigrants to 350 workshop centers run by churches and other community organizations in 22 cities. At the centers, immigrants receive English lessons and advice on meeting requirements and filling out forms. One radio listener was Angel Ivan Alvarez, 24, a legal immigrant from Mexico who said he had never thought of becoming a citizen until last week when the Senate bill failed. The measure, a bipartisan compromise supported by President Bush, would have granted legal status to illegal immigrants, among other actions. After it failed, Alvarez, a real estate agent from Whittier, Calif., took down information from El Piolin's show and registered in a citizenship workshop. ``I realized that I want to be able to vote and speak up for my people, because they are not getting enough support,'' Alvarez said Wednesday in a telephone interview. ``I want everybody to be able to come out of the shadows.'' Federico Gutierrez, 53, a longtime legal resident of Chicago who was born in Mexico, said large protests in March 2006 in support of an immigration overhaul made him decide that it was time to engage in American politics. When the debate turned angry, Gutierrez said, he wanted to be able to influence lawmakers who he believed favored immigrants. He prepared his application and brushed up on his English and American history in classes offered by the New Americans Initiative, a citizenship campaign financed by Illinois. He became a citizen in May. ``Now if I don't like the way things are going, I can let the government know my opinion,'' Gutierrez said in a telephone interview. Some legal immigrants, particularly Hispanics, have said they were unfairly tarred in the debate over the Senate bill, which in part failed because of vehement opposition from conservatives who said it offered blanket amnesty to illegal immigrants. ``A lot of people who are here legally are made to feel like lepers,'' said Rachel Duverge, 24, a Florida resident born in the Dominican Republic who was among the new citizens sworn in Wednesday in Orlando. Duverge said she became a citizen in part because she was eager to vote in the presidential election next year. Bush, she said, ``has not handled immigration well.'' To become citizens, immigrants have to be legal permanent residents who have lived continuously in the United States for five years. They have to have clean criminal records and pass tests to show proficiency in English and a basic knowledge of American history and government. Immigrant advocates say the increase in fees has been a decisive incentive for working-class immigrants to take action, especially when more than one family member is eligible to be a citizen. ``Before they said, `I can do it any time,' " said Catherine Salgado, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights in Chicago. ``Now it's not any time anymore.'' Salgado said the $675 fee was a week's wages for many immigrants who have applied for naturalization through workshops organized by the coalition. In Chicago, Gutierrez said he started life in a corn-growing village in central Mexico and had worked in factories most of the time since entering the United States in 1979. He has two adult sons who are U.S. citizens. ``I will always have Mexican blood,'' Gutierrez said, enjoying a day of rest on his first Fourth of July as an American. ``But my heart is here.''
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#1. To: Ferret Mike, *The Border* (#0)
If it's this easy, why don't they all apply? (They have to have clean criminal records and pass tests to show proficiency in English and a basic knowledge of American history and government.).
Kinda like the bankruptcy bill.
Q: How many Jews does it take to change a lightbulb?To become citizens, immigrants have to be legal permanent residents who have lived continuously in the United States for five years. They have to have clean criminal records and pass tests to show proficiency in English and a basic knowledge of American history and government. Immigrant advocates say the increase in fees has been a decisive incentive for working-class immigrants to take action, especially when more than one family member is eligible to be a citizen.
Ron Paul for President
#2. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
A: Lightbulb, Schmightbulb! You'd think it was the end of the world. Hold your head up---you look like a wounded putz!
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