Latinos Claim 30% Failure Rate for Citizen Applicants

Almost 30% of all immigrants who apply for citizenship fail on their first try, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Assn. of Latino Elected Officials.

The report, entitled “The Long Gray Welcome,” painted an unflattering picture of the U.S. naturalization program. It said that court backlogs, overly complicated procedures, inefficiency and “needlessly cold” naturalization forms contribute to the high rate of failure.

The 106-page study contained a series of recommendations, including lessening the courts’ role in naturalization proceedings, reducing the number of disqualifying conditions, loosening English literacy requirements and reducing the cost of becoming a citizen. Current regulations require immigrants to be literate in English, to prove they have been in this country for five years and to pay $50 before they can become naturalized citizens.

‘Negative Perception’

The study, which covered several years, drew upon naturalization law, naturalization case studies and interviews with officials at the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Harry Pachon, executive director of the Latino group, called the high failure rate “a definite problem” because it adds to the “negative perception” Latinos already have of the INS.

The naturalization process, Pachon said in an interview, is “a leap of faith.” He said the INS places too much emphasis on immigration and not enough on naturalization, which, he said, “falls through the cracks.”

INS spokesman Duke Austin replied: “We certainly encourage naturalization.” He asserted that there is a “lack of motivation to naturalize” among Latinos and that those who come forward have a small failure rate--only about 2% of all immigrants.

Computing Failures

But the study, disputing the INS method of computing failures, said people who do not make it all the way through the process should be counted. The INS rate “ignores the pool of applicants who are neither granted nor denied citizenship but are told to try again,” the study said.

The study found that in the first half of fiscal 1985, “only the 2.8% who pressed their cases to a court decision were formally denied citizenship.” But another 25%, it says, failed early in the process--13% because they were persuaded to drop their applications after the INS deemed them unqualified and another 12% because their applications were incomplete.

The INS “should commission studies of the naturalization caseload to determine what happens to that quarter of the naturalization caseload that is turned away from INS offices each year,” the study said.

It also urged U.S. officials to use Canada, whose approach to naturalization it called “more positive and less neutral” than this country’s, as a model for change. The report said Canada’s residency requirement is three years, not five, and that its fees for citizenship are equivalent to about $30 U.S., compared with $50 for U.S. citizenship.

Urging a lesser role for courts, the report said they “obviously should continue” to function in cases in which an alien and the INS disagree on eligibility for naturalization. “But the courts should be removed from a decision-making role regarding the time and place of naturalization ceremonies,” it said.

The report suggested that the English literacy requirement, which is waived for persons 50 and over if they have been in the country at least 20 years, also should be set aside for those 60 and over who have been in the country 10 years.