Rate for Mexicans Shoots Up : More Latino Immigrants Seeking U.S. Citizenship

Ignacio Mata has been a legal resident of the United States since 1955. He has raised a family in Los Angeles, sending three daughters to college. He pays taxes. But he has never voted. Officially still a Mexican national, he cannot cast a ballot in the country where he plans to spend the rest of his life.

Prodded by his daughter for years, Mata finally affixed his signature to an application for citizenship the other day.

“It’s easier (now), especially with all the help you have here,” said the warehouse clerk, sitting in a crowded auditorium in East Los Angeles, where volunteers guided hundreds of aspiring citizens through the process. “In time, we’re going to change the vote.”

Mata is one of thousands of Latinos who, after years of productive but marginal lives in the United States, have broken with tradition and decided to become citizens in their adopted country.

Mexicans--who despite being the largest immigrant group, historically have been among the least likely to naturalize--are becoming citizens at twice the rate of a few years ago.

Yet there are still an estimated 2 to 3 million Latinos in the United States eligible to become citizens, and that could double in the next several years. The federal amnesty program, which has commanded the attention of most Latino groups, is putting almost 3 million illegal aliens on the path toward becoming legal residents, making them eligible for eventual citizenship.

But the crush of eager amnesty applicants, say naturalization advocates, has diverted resources from the large number of Latinos who could become citizens right now.

While still falling far behind Asians and Europeans, Mexican naturalization shot up from 11,000 in 1982 to more than 23,000 in 1985 and a peak the next year of 28,000. Applicants leveled off in 1987, the same year that the amnesty program swung into high gear.

Still, the numbers are a drop in the bucket: only one of three eligible Latinos generally applies for citizenship, compared to two-thirds of most other groups.

A leading Latino organization, concerned that too few immigrants are participating in democracy, is expanding its campaign to increase these numbers. It is stepping in, its leaders say, partly because government efforts to encourage citizenship have been slack.

“It’s really the hidden obstacle to political empowerment in our community,” said Harry Pachon, executive director of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. “(More than) 800,000 Latinos in Los Angeles County can’t vote, serve on juries or work in the aerospace industry.”

The association recently began a workshop program where volunteers steer applicants through the often confusing path to citizenship. Next year it plans to expand its program throughout the country.

Said City Councilman Richard Alatorre: “The entire landscape of L.A. could conceivably be changed.” Alatorre said he constantly meets residents who are “extremely interested in their government” but shy away from taking the final step.

Politicians, immigration officials and scholars say Latinos may well be on their way to overcoming their traditional fears of citizenship. Factors cited in the past for their reluctance include: discrimination and the feeling that America doesn’t really accept them; fear of losing their identity; attachments to their country of origin (Mexico revokes citizenship when someone becomes naturalized elsewhere); and an oft-stated but seldom realized desire to move back home after making good money here. Another reason sometimes given is that the application is too complicated.

“It’s really surprising the number of people out there that are eligible for citizenship and for no good reason don’t do it,” said Michael Roquemore, a volunteer at the recent naturalization workshop. “They have not exercised their rights of citizenship (sometimes) for 30 years.”

The requirements are simple: five years of legal permanent residence, no felonies, English and civics tests and a $50 fee.

Between 80,000 and 110,000 residents become citizens every year in the Los Angeles area, according to the INS. Over three days in April, the Convention Center will swell with more than 15,000 fledgling citizens.

Vietnamese and Filipinos are the most likely to become citizens, with about 25,000 of each group doing so in 1987, the last year for which figures are available. Among Mexicans--a much larger group--only about 22,000 did so.

Resident aliens are bound to all the duties of citizenship--taxes, the draft--but they are denied some of the rights. Most elective offices as well as many government jobs are off limits. So are jobs that require security clearances. This is an important factor in California, where one in five jobs is with the government or defense contractors.

But many residents live happily for decades without citizenship.

“There are really few inconveniences to not being a citizen,” said Leo Estrada, a professor of urban planning at UCLA, who has researched naturalization patterns. “On the other hand, going through the process of citizenship is a considerable process.”

Responsible for that process is the Immigration and Naturalization Service, sometimes derisively referred to as a “two-headed creature,” the adjudicator of citizenship and, more frequently, the enforcer of immigration laws.

Because the INS devotes most of its resources to enforcement, it is often viewed negatively by immigrants. Government officials counter that naturalization is a voluntary act and one that they cannot afford to promote more heavily, given current fiscal constraints.

While aliens are told when they can become permanent residents and refugees are reminded a year after admission to apply for such status, naturalization candidates are not identified as such.

Pachon of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials says that the INS “has forgotten its middle initial.”

In January, a group representing more than 80 immigrant organizations met with U.S. Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh to lobby for a bureau of citizenship that would actively promote naturalization.

Ernest Gustafson, director of the INS Los Angeles office, called the idea a bureaucratic “nightmare.” He also defended the agency’s handling of naturalization, citing the reduction of backlogs in citizenship applications from four years to about a year.

The number of potential Latino voters could be given an additional boost in 1993, when the first wave from amnesty is expected to break. The citizens’ pool in California could expand by almost a million people.

Under one option, amnesty applicants can complete the English and civics part of the citizenship test and naturalize as soon as they have been a permanent resident for five years. Gustafson estimates that as many as 75% of those receiving amnesty might apply for citizenship the first year they are eligible.

Political activists, however, say translating numbers into political clout requires more than just boosting the naturalization rates: citizens must become registered voters, as well as go to the polls, and districts must be reapportioned.

“When there’s no meaningful opportunity for the Latino community to elect someone they want, they tend to drop out,” said Richard P. Fajardo, a lawyer with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which is suing Los Angeles County. “Fair representation starts with the Hispanic community getting districts they can get elected in.”

Districts Challenged

MALDEF, along with the Justice Department, contends that the county has drawn supervisorial districts so as to undermine Latino electoral power, an allegation denied by the county.

Interestingly, studies show that naturalized voters turn out in better numbers than native-born citizens, according to Robert Brischetto, executive director of the Southwest Voter Research Institute in San Antonio.

“They seem to have that fervor and appreciation for what citizenship means,” said Lupe de la Cruz, an aide to Rep. Esteban E. Torres (D-Los Angeles). “We’ve had a voice but lacked the muscle and mechanism to translate that into action.”

In 1986, when the state’s adult population was 17% Latino, voters in that November’s election were 7% Latino.

“American democracy becomes less representative when this many people can’t participate,” said Rosalind Gold, a consultant who has studied citizenship.

Participation was not a problem at the first Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials workshop on a recent Saturday.

At 6:30 they queued up. Single men, teen-age couples, families, the elderly, workers and professionals. Most chatted in Spanish and waited patiently for more than two hours outside the East Los Angeles Service Center. They came to become ciudadano s.

250 Applicants

More than 100 volunteers assisted them in completing the forms, as well as photographing and fingerprinting the applicants. The association will forward the more than 250 applications to the INS.

In 1986, almost two-thirds of the 368,664 applications nationwide were approved; only about 6,000 were turned down. The rest--more than a third--were refused on technical reasons, errors or omissions, said Karen Escalante of Latino officials association.

At 10 workshops this year in Southern California, the association intends to help 10,000 people apply for naturalization, a prelude to its planned nationwide effort next year.

Hortencia Vielme, a teacher’s assistant in Los Angeles, made a New Year’s resolution to seek citizenship after years of putting it off.

“We love this country,” she said. “We’re not going to leave. (You don’t) feel a part of this country (without citizenship).”

Seventeen-year-old Hector Organista came with his brother, sister and parents to apply for citizenship. For Organista, being a citizen will mean a better job in the Navy, in which he recently enlisted. He said his recruiter urged him to naturalize so that he can work in areas requiring a security clearence.

It will also mean a fuller integration into society.

“There’s no sense in living in another country if you can’t be a citizen,” he said. “I’m going to turn 18 in a couple of months and I want to get my vote in.”