|
Dreams of voting may be dashed
|
ImmigrantR-@afsc.org
|
Feb 08, 2008 14:56 PST
|
http://www.northjersey.com/news/Dreams_of_voting_may_be_dashed.html
Dreams of voting may be dashed
Friday, February 8, 2008
BY ELIZABETH LLORENTE
Thousands of New Jersey immigrants who applied to become U.S. citizens
may have a long wait ahead of them -- and could miss voting in the
November election, officials say.
In New Jersey there was a backlog of 45,208 applications as of December,
a 136 percent increase over the backlog a year earlier, when it was
19,000. Nationally, say officials of the U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services, the increase was 107 percent.
Officials say the backlog is the product of a one-two punch: Immigrants
last summer wanting to beat a $275 application fee increase, and others
wanting to participate in this year's presidential election.
The backlog threatens to extend the application process to as long as 18
months from the roughly four months it took last year, say USCIS
officials. That agency's director, Emilio Gonzalez, estimates it will
take two years to return to the normal processing time.
He said he refuses to cut corners on vetting applicants for the "sake of
[higher] productivity" so they can vote in November.
Processing naturalization applications, Gonzalez said, is "a very
complex process. It's not like walking into a burger place where you put
down $2 and you get your citizenship."
Blanca Molina, a North Bergen resident who heads a Salvadoran
organization in Hudson County, expressed frustration, saying that the
immigration agency had said the fee increase - from $400 to $675 --
would help the agency improve its services.
"That was the big justification for the higher fees," Molina said. "To
demand nearly $700 for a naturalization fee is very steep, it's not easy
for poor immigrants to come up with that money."
Immigration officials say they are only now getting around to
applications that they received in June, reflecting a delay of about
eight months. And they haven't even gotten to the huge number of
applications filed in July, when immigrants focused on avoiding the fee
hike. "The blip here went up 350 percent in one month," Gonzalez said.
"We got seven months of work in one month."
He scoffed at critics who say the agency should have had additional
resources ready. "If I decided to employ 2,000 people last year and we
didn't get a surge, then people would say 'You hired all these people,'
" he said. "It's a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation."
Gonzalez said his agency is trying to cut the backlog by extending
office hours and bolstering staff.
The USCIS office in Newark -- whose jurisdiction includes North Jersey
-- is adding 11 employees and is holding three citizenship ceremonies a
day, instead of two. That means about 360 people are being naturalized a
day there, instead of roughly 280 before the fee increase.
The president of Local 2149 of the American Federation of Government
Employees, which includes immigration officers, says the scramble to
address the backlog is taking a toll on workers. "I've heard people say
they don't have enough time to do it correctly," said Terry Scott, who
plans to raise his concerns to Gonzalez when he visits immigration
offices in New Jersey today. "They're overstressed."
Whether the added resources will make a difference for many would-be
immigrant votes remains uncertain.
"It's a shame that so many people will probably be left out," said
Sandra Arango, who handles the Immigration and American Citizenship
Organization's citizenship program in Passaic. "In the past, a real
motivator for
people to naturalize has been that it is easier, as a U.S. citizen, to
petition relatives back in our country for residency in the United
States. But this time, it's the presidential election that is the major
motivator."
Meanwhile, those who applied for citizenship wait. "I haven't heard
anything from the immigration agency yet," said Carlos Duran, who lives
in Lodi and who -- inspired by the upcoming presidential election --
applied in October. "I've been watching the debates, listening to the
candidates, trying to decide which candidate I'd vote for."
Colombian immigrant Silvio Herrera, who lives in Little Ferry, tunes in
to every presidential debate and hopes Sen. Hillary Clinton will be on
the ballot in November. He submitted his naturalization application in
January. "I have my green card, and you can live a good life here with
just your green card," he said. "But I wanted to be a full-fledged
member of this country. I want to vote and go to war for this country if
I'm needed."
But Gustavo Ramirez, IACO's executive director, said the immigration
agency should have anticipated that a huge increase in fees was going to
spark a mad rush to apply.
"Now, because of their lack of foresight," he said, "people will pay the
price of not being able to exercise their right to vote for president.
E-mail: llor-@northjersey.com
|
|
 |
|
