‘Citizenship Bureau’ Is Urged by Panel of Immigrant Groups

A group representing more than 80 immigrant organizations in California met Friday with U.S. Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh to urge the creation of a “Bureau of Citizenship” that would operate separately from the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

“The idea is to separate the promotion of citizenship from the same agency that has a built-in fear for immigrants because it is basically an enforcement agency,” said John Gamboa, executive director for the Latino Issues Forum. “It is incongruent to have these two functions in one organization.”

The group also met with aides to Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), who will review the proposal. Spokesmen for Thornburgh said that they are looking into the proposal and Gamboa said he hopes to have a response by next month.

Gamboa said his group presented “brief outlines” of how such a bureau would perform its duties differently from the INS, which is a Justice Department agency. He said that the proposed new bureau would be modeled after the Census Bureau, which operates under the Commerce Department.

“We think it is natural that (a new bureau) would go under the Education Department,” he said, adding that a similar bureau in Canada seems to be working well. “Canada just recently separated enforcement of immigration and promotion of citizenship and they now have a 25% higher naturalization rate” than the United States.

The Latino Issues Forum, which serves as an umbrella group for many Asian as well as Latino immigrant groups, is chaired by former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso.