Bill May Help Disabled Man Become a Citizen

Michael Wu is pretty agreeable about most things. Ask the 24-year-old Mira Mesa resident if he likes San Diego, swimming, hamburgers, his school or his teachers, and the answer each time is a soft, quiet “yes.”

However, there’s at least one thing Wu and his family find very disagreeable--the fact that Wu, a Taiwan native, has not been granted U.S. citizenship despite living here since 1980.

Wu has Down’s syndrome, a form of mental retardation caused by chromosomal abnormality. Because of his condition, Wu has repeatedly failed a literacy and education test required of naturalized citizens.

But, thanks to the efforts of Wu’s mother, Caroline, and several advocacy groups for the learning-disabled, Wu may become a citizen anyway.

Working together, the groups persuaded U.S. Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) to file a bill that would exempt Wu from taking the test. On Wednesday, after almost a year in political limbo, a House subcommittee gave preliminary approval to Bates’ bill.

Before then, Bates and others concerned with the case had held out little hope that the bill would ever get a hearing in Congress.

Leslie Bryant, area director of the state-run Developmental Disabilities Board, said she was encouraged to hear the bill had advanced from the House subcommittee.

“We had been told that the likelihood of passage was slim to none,” Bryant said. “There are hundreds of bills like that that never get through.”

Caroline Wu was also encouraged by the news from Washington. That bill, she says, is her youngest son’s last hope of becoming a citizen.

“He tried six times, and he still couldn’t pass,” said Mrs. Wu, a registered nurse. “I kept teaching him over and over. He does better at home, but, when he takes the test, he gets nervous.”

Mrs. Wu, her husband, and the couple’s other three sons have all become naturalized U.S. citizens.

Milton Blackstone, the chairman of an advisory board that brought the situation to Bates’ attention, said the repeated testing hasn’t been easy for Wu.

“It’s really been a terrible ordeal,” Blackstone said. “He (Wu) was interrogated for more than two hours on more than one occasion.”

Bates said he has been asked to file special relief bills “50 or 100 times” since he has been in office, but he rarely does.

However, he decided Wu’s predicament was unusual.

“This kind of got to me a little,” Bates said. “Here’s a young man who wants to be a citizen and, through no fault of his own, probably will never pass the test.”

Bates predicted that the bill will fare well when it appears before the full House Judiciary Committee.

“I think it’s a critical step,” Bates said of Wednesday’s legislative action.

Although there’s no timetable for passage, Bates said the bill might get final approval in three to four months.

Meanwhile, Wu continues to take special education classes at San Diego’s North Shores Center. An administrator there described Wu as a quick learner and a hard worker.

“Mike is very much into the program,” said Roger Phelps, the program manager at North Shores.

As part of his training, Wu helps prepare the center’s newspapers for shipment to a recycling plant. Wu is paid $6 to $10 a day, at a rate of one nickel for every pound of newspapers he prepares, Phelps said.

“You usually just have to show Mike how to do something once, and he picks it up,” Phelps said. “Once Mike is on a task, it’s hard to get him to stop.

“He gets along very well with his peers and with the staff,” Phelps added.

Phelps said Wu, who enrolled at the center two years ago, might one day be ready to work in the outside world.

Mrs. Wu hopes that Phelps is right; the family moved here to find better opportunities for Michael.

“In Taiwan, they don’t have these kinds of programs,” Mrs. Wu said. “I had heard that in the States they had special education programs. I’m sure that Michael can get a job and work.”

Blackstone said Wu has already proven that he can become a productive member of U.S. society.

“He’s a nice young man who is not a problem,” Blackstone said. “He’ll never be a burden on the United States.”

And would Michael himself like to become a U.S. citizen?

“Yes,” he says.