INS Receives $1 Million to Ease Backlog

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Los Angeles announced this week that it has received an unprecedented $1 million to use in “Citizenship USA”--an initiative intended to plow through the tremendous backlog of naturalization applications in the county.

INS headquarters in Washington granted the Los Angeles branch the money, which will be used to hire more staff and keep interviewers working after hours and on weekends, said district Director Richard K. Rogers.

The agency already has quadrupled its citizenship staff to handle the pile of 200,000 applications created when it discontinued the green card this year, but several immigration outreach groups said the additional staff is not enough. Hundreds of protesters have gathered on the steps of the Federal Building three times in the past two months to criticize the sluggish processing.

“We have some people who were interviewed in November who are still waiting to be sworn in,” said Father Miguel Vega, director of the Active Citizenship Campaign.

After a protest Wednesday outside the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, Rogers agreed to meet with applicants in their communities to discuss the backlog and hear their concerns.

New citizens can register to vote as late as a week before the election if they fill out their registration application at the county registrar office in Norwalk, a spokeswoman for the registrar said.

But many would-be citizens said they are not confident that their applications will be processed in time to make that deadline.

“It’s frustrating,” said Rita Leon, a Cal State L.A. graduate who illegally immigrated here from Mexico in 1981. “They told us in July that it was going to take three to four months; right now it is taking them at least 18 months to process applications. I don’t know if I’ll be able to vote in time.”