Oxnard Forum Cuts INS Paperwork for Aspiring Citizens

At first glance, the scene at Oxnard College on Saturday hardly seemed cause for celebration.

Hundreds of immigrants waited for hours in long lines to be grilled. They were asked where they live, how long they have been in the United States, where they work. Police stamped their thumbs to make fingerprint records. After that, their pictures were taken.

But about 2,500 immigrants from Mexico to the Philippines who packed the college auditorium for U.S. Citizenship Day had plenty of reason to be hopeful.

With the help of local volunteers, they cut time off the notoriously slow process of becoming a U.S. citizen. The daylong forum rolled the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s initial paperwork and identification procedures into one visit, saving applicants the hassle of driving to Los Angeles just to take the first steps toward citizenship.

Many aspiring citizens said they had waited too long to take an active role in the democratic process.

Newbury Park resident Ramon Oviedo had said the pledge of allegiance in local classrooms as a young boy after his family immigrated from Tijuana. But the 32-year-old warehouse worker had never applied for citizenship.

But Oviedo said recent legislation aimed at cutting back assistance to noncitizens got him moving. He is afraid of not being eligible for Social Security when he retires.

“I thought being a legal resident was enough, but now everything’s changing,” Oviedo said as his 2-year-old daughter squirmed impatiently. “I love this country. You can be whatever you want to be. Even though I’m not a U.S. citizen, this is home for me.”

Saturday’s forum was organized by the U.S. Citizenship Action Network, a group with offices in Sacramento and Los Angeles. The group has previously focused on helping immigrants in rural parts of Northern California become citizens. Buoyed by the success of U.S. Citizenship Days in places such as Stockton, where 12,000 immigrants turned out at a forum last fall, the group has stepped up efforts in Southern California.

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The group works by securing a location, soliciting publicity for the events in local media and mobilizing scores of volunteers. On Saturday, about 500 members of local organizations such as the Oxnard Harbor District, Latino advocacy group El Concilio and the Labor Council of Ventura County helped answer questions.

Such programs already are held locally, but on a much smaller scale. Advocates say they stress the importance of voting and other types of civic involvement.

“It’s a call to action, a mini-revolution,” said Lonnie Miramontes of the Center for Employment Training in Oxnard. “The realization is you have to participate. It’s not enough to work for eight hours, then go home.”

In recent years the INS has seen an explosion of citizenship applications. The agency naturalized about 1.3 million new citizens between August 1995 and September 1996--about four times the national average from 1990 to 1994.

Although he praised Saturday’s Oxnard forum for helping legal residents become citizens, U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) said he is troubled that some activists may be trying to counteract welfare reform.

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The new federal welfare overhaul slashes SSI payments to about 1 million elderly and disabled legal immigrants who have not attained U.S. citizenship.

“I don’t mean to sound cynical,” the congressman said. “But getting welfare benefits should not be the driving force for swearing allegiance to this country.

“I think we should try, during the process of this, to explain to people there is more to being a citizen than a welfare check,” Gallegly said.

Activists said, however, that welfare is not the motivating force for most of those at the event Saturday.

“I would certainly invite Mr. Gallegly to one of our events to experience it for himself,” said Darby Patterson, coordinator for the U.S. Citizenship Action Network.

“Look at this group,” said Patterson, who, like many volunteers, was decked out in red, white and blue. “It’s all ages and all walks of life. They’re here because they want to be Americans, and they’re representative of the kinds of people who came to America and made it what it is.”

Gabriella Navarro, a dispatch manager for the Oxnard Police Department, helped fingerprint applicants.

But Navarro is not a U.S. citizen. The 37-year-old moved to the United States from Mexico as a child but has avoided the cumbersome naturalization process.

Yet she knew she was missing out. Navarro has been unable to apply for federal jobs at local Navy bases. She has had tense debates with her daughters on issues such as Proposition 187 and Jack Kemp’s views on immigration. But her daughters can vote, and she cannot.

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Returning from a vacation in Mexico several years ago, Navarro was stopped at the border by immigration officials and held for several hours because her paperwork was not in order.

“That doesn’t happen to an American citizen,” said Navarro, who filled out an INS application Saturday morning as crowds began lining up outside the college. “I consider the U.S. my home, and the only way I’ll be able to articulate that is with my right to vote.”

INS officials, who plan to open an office in Ventura County in 1998, say they support community efforts such as U.S. Citizenship Day. The event drew legal residents born in countries across the globe, including the United Kingdom, India, Canada and Germany, organizers said.

“The agency wants us to get out in the community,” said INS spokeswoman Jane Ariano, adding that four agents were in Oxnard to monitor the fingerprinting.

After paying the $95 INS application fee, those who attended the Oxnard forum still faced a long wait. It will be a few months before they take a test on U.S. government and history and are interviewed by INS officials. The agency said the entire naturalization process takes about a year because of the backlog of applications in Southern California.