Riordan Assails Citizenship Backlog

Mayor Richard Riordan joined immigrant advocates Wednesday in calling on Congress and the Immigration and Naturalization Service to speed up the increasingly backlogged system by which legal immigrants become U.S. citizens.

“These are people who played by the rules and who want to be full citizens of our country, and we should embrace them,” Riordan said at a City Hall news conference coinciding with similar events in New York, Washington and other cities on National Citizenship Day, marking the date the Constitution was ratified in 1789.

Delays for some citizenship applicants now approach two years--compared with six months just a year ago. In part because many immigrants fear losing benefits due to 1996’s welfare changes, the national backlog of applicants had grown by July to 1.3 million, a quarter from Southern California.

Activists working on behalf of immigrants applauded Riordan’s comments as a breakthrough for a mayor who, despite his city’s place at Ground Zero in the national immigration debate, has generally eschewed the kind of high-profile stance of his more flamboyant New York counterpart, Rudolph W. Giuliani--like Riordan, a moderate Republican in a mostly Democratic city.

“It’s critically important that the mayor of Los Angeles stand front and center in support of immigrants becoming new citizens,” said Luke E. Williams Jr., executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “He can set the moral tone.”

In his most concrete proposal, the mayor offered the services of the Los Angeles Police Department in taking the fingerprints of would-be citizens. The INS sends applicants’ fingerprints to the FBI for checks against potential criminal records that may disqualify them. The mayor’s offer may have little practical impact, however; most of the backlogs are occurring at the FBI level.

Political observers say Riordan’s statements fit into an evolving GOP strategy designed to woo new citizens alienated by Gov. Pete Wilson’s championing of measures perceived as targeting immigrants, notably Proposition 187, the 1994 ballot initiative passed overwhelmingly by voters but largely tied up by court order.

“What Dick Riordan is doing is what a lot of Republican moderates who want to survive as politically significant in California need to be doing,” said Allan Hoffenblum, a Los Angeles-based GOP political strategist. “Republicans have been stuck with the label of being anti-immigrant, and it has become a real problem in California, since immigrants are where the population growth is.”

Immigrants now account for one-quarter of all Californians, the highest fraction nationwide. Some 40% of L.A. County’s population is foreign-born, mirroring proportions in New York City during the previous wave of immigration early in this century.

Three years ago, Riordan was harshly criticized among immigrant activists for his refusal to take a position on Proposition 187, which would have barred illegal immigrants from public schools and from other subsidized services.

Aides to Riordan downplayed any broader significance to Wednesday’s appearance, noting that the mayor has increasingly spoken out on behalf of legal immigrants in recent months. And, while never taking a public stand on Proposition 187, the mayor has repudiated several of its tenets, arguing that all children deserve access to education and health care regardless of status and that police officers should not be asked to help enforce immigration laws.

“The mayor has long advocated for the rights of legal immigrants, and this is not in any way his major ‘coming out’ ” on the issue, said Noelia Rodriguez, the mayor’s spokeswoman.

In June, Riordan and Giuliani backed restoration of welfare benefits for aged and disabled legal immigrants during a joint appearance on Ellis Island, the historic New York entry point for immigrants. More recently, Riordan wrote to the White House on behalf of Central Americans facing deportation and expressed concern about the growing delays in processing citizenship applicants.

Despite those recent developments, those who work closely with immigrants say Wednesday’s appearance on the City Hall steps provides a kind of exclamation point for an emerging new public role for a mayor who is often more comfortable behind the scenes.

But not everyone is enthusiastic about Riordan’s growing presence as an advocate on behalf of immigrants.

“He’s sold his political soul to the demographic movement,” said Glenn Spencer, executive director of the Voice of Citizens Together, a Sherman Oaks-based group that seeks restrictions in immigration and naturalization.

Behind the naturalization backlog are allegations that thousands of criminals wrongly received citizenship papers before last year’s national elections. Among other new safeguards, officials have vowed to move no new application forward until the FBI has completed criminal background check.

Responding to the criticism from Riordan and others, INS officials noted Wednesday that the Clinton administration is seeking permission from Congress to use $200 million in agency fees to help reduce the backlog.