Updates

Action Alert: Jan 15th 2008: Sign-On Letter

USCIS is now stating that citizenship applications could take as long as 16-18 months to process.  This backlog is the result of a surge of applications that it received in advance of the fee increase it imposed last July 30.  USCIS issued receipts for nearly 264,000 citizenship applications during this past June and July, and in some regions was still issuing receipts for pre-July 30 applications in November. 

USCIS claims that it did not anticipate this surge in applications.  Regardless of how the backlogs came about, they effectively mean that applicants who filed last summer, fully expecting to be able to become citizens in time to vote in this fall’s elections.  In other words, USCIS’s failure to plan adequately will disenfranchise thousands of new voters.

The House Immigration Subcommittee is holding a hearing regarding these backlogs next Thursday, January 17, at 10 AM ET.  Below the text to the sign-on letter addressed to USCIS Emilio Gonzalez calling for action to address the backlogs.  This letter to Dr. Gonzalez and the committee will be submitted at the hearing. 

Please sign-on your organization. E-mail name of your organization to ftsao@icirr.org by Wednesday, January 16, at 1 PM ET

Text of Sign-On Letter to Emilio Gonzalez, Dir of USCIS

text of sign-on letter

Dr. Emilio Gonzalez

Director, US Citizenship and Immigration Services
20 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington DC 20536
Dear Dr. Gonzalez:

The undersigned organizations are writing to you because we are deeply concerned about the current delays in naturalization processing. 

The delays stem from last summer’s surge in applications for citizenship and other immigration benefits.  Immigrants had already begun applying for citizenship in much higher numbers throughout 2006, moved by a desire to become full members of our body politic and commit to their new home country.  The fee increases announced in early 2007 provided even more motivation for these immigrants to not delay their applications any further.

Many of the undersigned organizations opposed fee increases of the magnitude that USCIS proposed and warned that if USCIS were to proceed with the fee increases, it must prepare for a surge in applications from immigrants wishing to avoid the fee increases.  In fact, USCIS did move forward with the fee increases, but did not adequately prepare to handle such a surge.

Yet the surge happened, causing worsened delays.  USCIS has stated that processing delays for citizenship applications could hit 18 months.  Indeed, many applicants who filed before the fee increase have already had to wait four to five months just to get a receipt from USCIS.  By the end of December, USICS had not finalized plans for handling the backlog created last July.

Meanwhile, USCIS still appears to have no plan to address the thousands of applications that are still delayed due to name-check clearances.  Approximately 150,000 citizenship applicants have waited more than six months, if not years, for their names to clear the FBI name-check process.  These delays have hit several populations particularly hard; Arab and Muslim immigrants are disproportionately affected.

The processing backlogs and name check delays are preventing hardworking, patriotic immigrants from becoming full members of our nation.  Specifically, these delays will disenfranchise thousands of immigrants who, applying more than a year prior to the upcoming Presidential election, had fully expected to be able to vote in this election.  If USCIS does not address the delays, these immigrants will not yet be citizens and will not be able to vote in the November election. 

We urge you to take whatever measures may be necessary to alleviate the current backlogs and to ensure that the naturalization applications for these immigrants are promptly processed so that they may become citizens.  Our nation should be doing whatever it can to enable legal immigrants to join the American community.  Poor planning and bureaucratic delays should not bar the door to the American Dream.  Thank you for your consideration.

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