Immigrant Paperwork Backs Up At DHS

[nksj 0]

Immigrant Paperwork Backs Up At DHS

Delays May Deny Vote to Hundreds Of Thousands

By Spencer S. Hsu

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, November 22, 2007; A01

The Department of Homeland Security failed to prepare for a massive influx of applications for U.S. citizenship and other immigration benefits this summer, prompting complaints from Hispanic leaders and voter-mobilization groups that several hundred thousand people likely will not be granted citizenship in time to cast ballots in the 2008 presidential election.

Bush administration officials said yesterday that they had anticipated applicants would rush to file their paperwork to beat a widely publicized fee increase that took effect July 30, but did not expect the scale of the response. The backlog comes just months after U.S. officials failed to prepare for tougher border security requirements that triggered months-long delays for millions of Americans seeking passports.

Before the fee hike, citizenship cases typically took about seven months to complete. Now, immigration officials can take five months or more just to acknowledge receipt of applications from parts of the country and will take 16 to 18 months on average to process applications filed after June 1, according to officials from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of DHS. Such a timeline would push many prospective citizens well past voter-registration deadlines for the 2008 primaries and the general elections.

"We expected [the fee increase] might stimulate demand from some folks to file who wouldn't have otherwise, and some from folks to file earlier than they would have," said Michael Aytes, associate director of USCIS, "but we never anticipated" the extent of the growth. "It went off the charts," he said.

Other factors include legal immigrants' anxiety at an increasingly harsh tenor of the political debate over illegal immigration, and heightened interest in the 2008 presidential election, officials said.

The immigration agency's workload has nearly doubled, Aytes said, with 1.4 million naturalization applications arriving from October 2006 to September 2007, compared with 731,000 applications the year before. Between July and September of this year alone, USCIS received 560,000 applications, he said.

The number of green-card-related applications surged to 876,000 in fiscal 2007, from 497,000 in fiscal 2006, he said. At one point this summer, USCIS had 1 million applications and checks waiting to be opened and acknowledged, Aytes said, a backlog that now stands at 235,000. Overall, USCIS received 7.7 million applications for all types of immigration benefits, up from 6.3 million.

"I really want to target the elections," USCIS Director Emilio T. Gonzalez told the Associated Press in an interview published Tuesday. "I really want to get as many people out there to vote as possible."

Aides, however, contradicted him. "We are going to process these cases as responsibly and as quickly as we can, but we're not focused on any of the election cycle," Aytes said. USCIS spokesman Bill Wright emphasized that political calculations played no role in agency decisions. "Any implication of that is ludicrous," he said.

In June, poor planning and coordination between DHS and the State Department forced the Bush administration to temporarily suspend a new security requirement that Americans present passports when flying to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda. Processing times for passport applications ballooned from three weeks to three or four months, jeopardizing summer travel plans for millions of Americans. Wait times returned to normal after the State Department allocated more resources and staffing.

The new crunch -- which some USCIS officials have dubbed a "frontlog" -- threatens to create a political headache that also stems in part from a State-DHS miscommunication. In addition to raising immigration fees this summer, the Bush administration triggered another cascade of applications for legal permanent residency, or green cards, from skilled immigrant workers when it pushed back a planned July 2 deadline, largely because the two departments failed to coordinate on how many slots were available.

"It is the same pattern," said Crystal Williams, deputy director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "It strikes me as remarkable. It's not as if this could not have been predicted."

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who chairs a House immigration subcommittee, said prospective citizens' ability to vote could be delayed, even though USCIS justified what she called its "outrageous" fee increases by saying they would pay to improve efficiency and speed processing. Citizenship applicants by rule must have lived in the United States at least three to five years and established stable lives. Roughly 85 percent of applicants are approved.

Citizenship application fees -- including electronic fingerprinting fees -- rose from $410 to $675 on July 30.

"These are people who want to be Americans . . . and to not allow them to participate in one of the fundamental [rights] of a democracy, which is voting, is a real problem," Lofgren said.

The immigration agency breakdown comes at a sensitive time. President Bush's immigration overhaul legislation failed in the Senate this summer, intensifying a heated national debate in which most Republican presidential candidates are using get-tough rhetoric on border security to mobilize voters agitated over immigration. Democratic contenders are supporting more comprehensive measures, seeking to attract support from Hispanic voters who may be put off by the harder GOP line.

"We have a huge concern on the impact of efforts for people to be able to vote in time for the primaries," said William A. Ramos, Washington spokesman for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, which along with Spanish-language media and labor unions has supported voter-registration efforts in potential swing states with large immigrant populations, including California, New York, New Jersey, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida.

Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the 1.9 million-member Service Employees International Union, said immigrants who want to assimilate into U.S. culture and politics are being let down. "I think the overwhelming response of immigrants is 'We do want to be part of this country, but we also want our voices heard,' " he said. "Unfortunately, due to the incompetence of the federal agency, they may not be able to register their opinions."

Sandra Flores, 26, of Houston said she applied for citizenship July 30 but has not heard back from USCIS. "I'm worried. I feel frustrated," said Flores, a part-time student at San Jacinto College who immigrated with her family from Monterrey, Mexico, in 1995, and who said citizenship would give her a vote, a greater sense of security and a better chance to attend a university.

Mildred Molina de Andujar, 42, of Dorchester, Mass., a janitor at Boston's John Hancock building, said she applied July 26. USCIS told her only last week that it had received her application.

"The most important thing for me is the right to vote," said Andujar, who immigrated from the Dominican Republic in 1993 and has a 17-year-old daughter with a green card and a 10-year-old son who is a U.S. citizen by birth.

Original article at WaPo: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ml?hpid=topnews

[peejay 327]

The Texas Service Center continues to be the worst of the worst. It has been a plague on my wife and I since the beginning of our VisaJourney.

We sent her N-400 for US citizenship on Oct. 25 and it was received on Oct. 29. Since then we have not gotten a receipt nor has the check been cashed. From what I hear, it will be months before that will happen.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Well, a lot of these folks could have applied years ago, but sat on their hands until the illegal immigration debate heated up. I don't feel even a little bit sorry that they may not be able to vote this time. I don't feel sorry for the vote-seeking Democrat politicians and their sycophants who are whining about it and blaming the government.

Boo hoo! Write an article about personal responsibility, why don't cha?

[Marc and Olga 0]

Well, a lot of these folks could have applied years ago, but sat on their hands until the illegal immigration debate heated up. I don't feel even a little bit sorry that they may not be able to vote this time. I don't feel sorry for the vote-seeking Democrat politicians and their sycophants who are whining about it and blaming the government.

Boo hoo! Write an article about personal responsibility, why don't cha?

Right, isn't it a 10 year wait for citizenship for most? The 2 people they quote waited 12 and 14 years...no sympathy from me for them!

Sandra Flores, 26, of Houston said she applied for citizenship July 30 but has not heard back from USCIS. "I'm worried. I feel frustrated," said Flores, a part-time student at San Jacinto College who immigrated with her family from Monterrey, Mexico, in 1995, and who said citizenship would give her a vote, a greater sense of security and a better chance to attend a university.

Mildred Molina de Andujar, 42, of Dorchester, Mass., a janitor at Boston's John Hancock building, said she applied July 26. USCIS told her only last week that it had received her application.

"The most important thing for me is the right to vote," said Andujar, who immigrated from the Dominican Republic in 1993 and has a 17-year-old daughter with a green card and a 10-year-old son who is a U.S. citizen by birth.

[peejay 327]

The Department of Homeland Security failed to prepare for a massive influx of applications for U.S. citizenship and other immigration benefits this summer, prompting complaints from Hispanic leaders and voter-mobilization groups that several hundred thousand people likely will not be granted citizenship in time to cast ballots in the 2008 presidential election.

Well, a lot of these folks could have applied years ago, but sat on their hands until the illegal immigration debate heated up. I don't feel even a little bit sorry that they may not be able to vote this time. I don't feel sorry for the vote-seeking Democrat politicians and their sycophants who are whining about it and blaming the government.

Boo hoo! Write an article about personal responsibility, why don't cha?

Bingo! I see I'm not the only one to see the obvious. The Democratic party is pinning its hopes on pandering to the illegal alien cheerleading club and their self serving goal of continued uncontrolled open borders with the inevitable mass immigration through and from Mexico.

The sleaze factor is obvious. Import votes when the American people don't buy into their self serving bullshit and when we rebel against policies that are detrimental to the vast majority of Americans.

The rush to beat the fee increase is to blame too. The percentage of each factor is hard to determine.

[rebeccajo 14]

Why does it always have to get back to EWI's with you people?

[peejay 327]

Why does it always have to get back to EWI's with you people?

Because it is the 2 ton pink elephant that someone dumped into my living room while nobody was looking. If I gotta live with it and put up with it...I'm gonna make sure everybody hears about it until somebody does something about it.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Squeak! Squeak!

[Ban Hammer 13,554]

Why does it always have to get back to EWI's with you people?

Because it is the 2 ton pink elephant that someone dumped into my living room while nobody was looking. If I gotta live with it and put up with it...I'm gonna make sure everybody hears about it until somebody does something about it.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Squeak! Squeak!

and those that entered with inspection under a k visa probably have a ssn by now and i don't have to worry about them stealing my identity.........

[Caladan 19]

How on earth is it importing votes for legal permanent residents to become citizens? Not EWIs or overstays here. They're not the ones that hiked the fees up which lead to a very predictable increase in applications, even among our own VJers. That's legal immigration and one potential outcome of LEGAL immigration, even if you don't like the fact that they're unlikely to vote the way you want.

This whole process is ridiculous. I mean, really, you can b!tch that it's not the government's fault they won't be processed in time (yet if that's the case, don't b!tch about not getting a receipt, after all, it's not the government's fault, right?), but July 2007 is what, a year and a half before the presidential election? Expecting a turn around time of less than a year and a half is not some crazy demand. Do you really want to argue that that's an acceptable timeline just because they might not vote Republican?

One would think that LEGAL immigrants would be glad that the insane backlog is getting some attention.

[Marc and Olga 0]

How on earth is it importing votes for legal permanent residents to become citizens? Not EWIs or overstays here. They're not the ones that hiked the fees up which lead to a very predictable increase in applications, even among our own VJers. That's legal immigration and one potential outcome of LEGAL immigration, even if you don't like the fact that they're unlikely to vote the way you want.

This whole process is ridiculous. I mean, really, you can b!tch that it's not the government's fault they won't be processed in time (yet if that's the case, don't b!tch about not getting a receipt, after all, it's not the government's fault, right?), but July 2007 is what, a year and a half before the presidential election? Expecting a turn around time of less than a year and a half is not some crazy demand. Do you really want to argue that that's an acceptable timeline just because they might not vote Republican?

One would think that LEGAL immigrants would be glad that the insane backlog is getting some attention.

My biggest problem with this article is the fact that these people waited 2-4 years AFTER they could have applied, why did they wait? Why, all of a sudden, do they care about having their voice heard in '08? IF having their vote count why did they not start, say, in Jan of '07...Dec. of '06 or even as soon as they were elegible, such as it seems in PeeJay's case?

Benefit of the doubt the one had 1 year PRIOR to filing and the other had 3 and NOW they are complaining because the GOVERNMENT isn't moving fast enough for them?

I feel for those who were elegible for citizenship as of June/July of this year because they have to contend with the lazy @$$es.

[Carolyn 1]

One would think that the government would be able to hire LOTS of new USCIS workers to help reduce the backlog considering how much they increased the fees!

What are they spending those increased fees on, after all?

Carolyn

[Carolyn 1]

What difference does it make to y'all that people waited some time before applying for citizenship?

It's not like they were being irresponsible or breaking the law. In order to apply for citizenship people need to have been LEGALLY in the country for a number of years. And people do not have to apply for citizenship.

One of my best friends is a New Zealand citizen married to an American. Last year she chose to apply for a second 10-year Green Card rather than apply for citizenship. The ONLY reason she considered applying for citizenship is because she would then be able to vote. She decided against it.

[no name 1]

I'm glad it's a year before we can file LOC, is all I can say.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

What difference does it make to y'all that people waited some time before applying for citizenship?

What difference does it make to us that many of them won't be eligible to vote by the next election because they procrastinated? The Washington Post sees fit to make it an issue, and they blatantly frame it in unobjective political terms. So, it's not a stretch to respond to the issue they raised with a political response. It's a no-brainer - people waited to apply, there was a deluge of applicants, now they have a longer than normal wait to become a citizen. Sounds logical to me. Only the very naive or the very manipulative would expect that the government to prepare for a rush.

Think passports . . .

Edited November 22, 2007 by Green-eyed girl

[peejay 327]

How on earth is it importing votes for legal permanent residents to become citizens? Not EWIs or overstays here. They're not the ones that hiked the fees up which lead to a very predictable increase in applications, even among our own VJers. That's legal immigration and one potential outcome of LEGAL immigration, even if you don't like the fact that they're unlikely to vote the way you want.

This whole process is ridiculous. I mean, really, you can b!tch that it's not the government's fault they won't be processed in time (yet if that's the case, don't b!tch about not getting a receipt, after all, it's not the government's fault, right?), but July 2007 is what, a year and a half before the presidential election? Expecting a turn around time of less than a year and a half is not some crazy demand. Do you really want to argue that that's an acceptable timeline just because they might not vote Republican?

One would think that LEGAL immigrants would be glad that the insane backlog is getting some attention.

Numero uno...I'm not b*tching about how long it takes for my wife to become a US citizen. I hope my government takes whatever reasonable time it takes to determine if applicants meet all legal requirements. I do not want terrorists, criminals, or fraudsters to be bestowed with US citizenship. It's not about loading up Democratic (or Republican) voters for the election. Unlike the "Hispanic leaders" at the beginning of the article that are primarily concerned with getting out the vote for their amnesty agenda.

Importing votes? What do you think the last 3 attempts at amnesty were all about? The left wing of the Democratic party is betting the farm on mass blanket amnesty for illegal aliens of whom 80+% are from Latin America. Take a gander at this article in my hometown newspaper. This isn't the "Daily Socialist Worker" or "The Neo-Con Gazette". This is the local newspaper with the largest circulation in the big city of Houston (where 12+% of the population is illegal aliens).

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5322009.html

From the Houston Chronicle:

Latino influx shakes up Iowa's political picture

Now more than 115,000 Hispanics live in Iowa, comprising almost 4 percent of the state's population of 3 million.

The rapid growth of Iowa's Hispanic population, particularly the estimated 55,000 to 85,000 here illegally...

Democratic converts

...Sylvia Padilla, a Mexican-American whose first language is Spanish, expressed similar sentiments. "Republicans no good for me," she said.

And you don't see amnestied illegal aliens as "imported votes"? Let's get real here. There have been 7 illegal alien amnesties since 1986 and these people have come to believe it is some sort of guaranteed right that they can illegally immigrate and expect mass amnesty on demand. Geez...most of the Hispanics in Iowa are illegal aliens. It's just as bad (if not worst) in Texas, most of the Southwest USA, and other parts of the USA.

And who mostly panders to them? I'll give you 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count. This is so wrong on so many levels I can't believe any American buys into this #######. There is a whole slough of candidates from both parties that vie for this lowest common denominator for their own personal gain. All the Democratic presidential candidates and some misguided Republicans. I won't vote for any of them. They can all "go to hell".

Let's get a grip on reality here. Not to mention the invisible hand of Mexico in this. They want "their" citizens to vote in both Mexican and American elections. This is not good for America. Only an idiot would believe it is.