INS Pledges to Reduce Long Wait for Citizenship

As protesters cited mounting delays for citizenship applicants, the chief INS official in Los Angeles renewed the agency’s pledge Tuesday to slice bulging backlogs and cut waiting periods to six months by this summer.

However, Richard K. Rogers, district director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, acknowledged that it might take until September to reach the six-month goal.

Upon unveiling the agency’s much-ballyhooed “Citizenship USA” initiative last summer, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner vowed to reduce delays from the time of submitting an application until taking the citizenship oath to six months.

“The commitment is still there,” affirmed Rogers, whose citizenship staff has quadrupled to handle an unprecedented surge that has left a backlog of more than 200,000 seeking naturalization to U.S. citizenship.

The Los Angeles area leads the nation in citizenship requests, generating about one-quarter of the national total.

Early Tuesday, more than 100 demonstrators gathered outside the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, protesting what they termed growing delays in a process that now often drags on for a year or more. One participant, wearing donkey ears and clutching an armful of file folders, was identified in jest as the INS’ Rogers.

Among those demonstrating were many who are afraid they will lose the chance to vote in November. All cited the perceived anti-immigrant climate as a strong motivating factor.

“The politicians in this country are stepping on us immigrants now,” said Mercedes Prado, who applied for citizenship last June.

Activists and religious leaders have been encouraging immigrants to become citizens and vote to counter a growing anti-immigrant sentiment embodied in the Proposition 187 campaign and the presidential candidacy of Patrick J. Buchanan, who has made immigration a touchstone issue in the Republican primaries.

“It’s time for people to have a voice,” said Father Miguel Vega, director of the Active Citizenship Campaign, a grass-roots group that organized Tuesday’s protest.

Nationwide, a record of more than 1 million new U.S. citizens are expected to be sworn in during 1996, said David Rosenberg, the INS’ national director for Citizenship USA. That would double the 500,000 who became U.S. citizens during 1995.

In an effort to keep up with the surging demand, the INS has streamlined procedures and more than doubled citizenship funding to more than $140 million. Yet, critics note, the total still represents less than 6% of the INS’ record $2.6-billion budget, which is heavily geared toward border enforcement.