Swifter Path to Citizenship

As more and more qualified immigrants seek to become American citizens, the burden of the Immigration and Naturalization Service becomes heavier and the need to streamline the process more evident. That’s why a bill proposed by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) sends the right message. It aims to reduce the staggering backlog of more than 1.7 million citizenship-qualified immigrants while preserving the integrity of the process.

As it stands today, immigrants in the last phase of the naturalization process have to wait, on average, two years to obtain their certificate, and that comes after five years as a legal resident. Surely the INS can do better.

During the past five years more than 4.5 million immigrants have taken the oath of allegiance to the United States. And this year a record 1.8 million immigrants are expected to apply for citizenship.

The Kennedy-Gephardt bill, supported by the congressional Hispanic and Asian caucuses, would require the attorney general to redesign the process so that a case, from application to citizenship oath, takes less than six months.

The bill also speaks to the integrity of the process and aims to prevent ineligible immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens. Some funding has already been appropriated for fiscal year 1998.

There are other immigration and naturalization proposals in Congress, but the Kennedy-Gephardt bill is the most comprehensive. Americans may debate the value of continuing immigration, but all should support a swift, sure transit to citizenship once an immigrant sets forth on that road.