New fees and rules for new citizens
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, October 28, 2006
Immigrant advocacy groups are decrying an array of proposed federal measures, including application fee increases and online filing requirements, that they fear will sharply reduce the ability of some legal immigrants to become U.S. citizens.
As President Bush signed a controversial bill last week authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, immigrant rights groups charge that the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services is erecting a regulatory “second wall” that disproportionately would hurt Mexican immigrants, who tend to be less educated and earn lower incomes than others.
Last week, a coalition of more than 230 religious, labor and immigrant rights groups delivered a letter to Emilio Gonzalez, citizenship bureau director, expressing strong concern about application fee increases that could more than double to $800, a so-called “digital barrier” of a mandatory online filing system, extensive new paperwork and a revised history and civics test they fear could be more difficult.
“Together they appear to us a clear strategy pursued through administrative fiat to make the dream of American citizenship unattainable for many lower-income, less-educated immigrants,” said the letter, which was initiated by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Some activists fear the Bush administration is seeking to tighten access to citizenship to bar potential new Democratic voters. But U.S. immigration officials flatly deny any partisan motives.
They say they merely are aiming to make the system more efficient, financially self-sustaining and better able to ensure that new citizens understand foundational American values and historical events. Some of the initiatives, including the move to automation and a revised test, were recommended in 1997 by the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform under the Clinton administration. The final proposals are expected to be announced in the next few months and take 12 to 18 months to implement.
Republican-sponsored legislation that passed the Senate earlier this year requires that a revised exam test understanding of major documents, such as the Federalist Papers and Emancipation Proclamation, and important historical events, such as major court decisions and key figures in U.S. politics, science, business and art.
