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CLINIC Calls for Toned-down Political Rhetoric on Immigration
By Pat Zapor
Catholic News Service
Jan. 24, 2008
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Catholic Legal Immigration Network called on
presidential candidates and elected officials to have a more productive
discussion of immigration. It also decried delays that it said will keep
many new citizens from voting this year.
In the 2007 fiscal year, 1.4 million people applied for U.S.
citizenship, double the previous year's applications, said Don Kerwin,
director of the U.S. Catholic Church's umbrella organization for
immigration services, known by its acronym, CLINIC.
It now takes 18 months to process a naturalization application, up from
seven months before the latest surge, said Emilio Gonzalez, director of
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, at a Jan. 17 hearing before
the House Judiciary Committee.
That means many people who filed for citizenship before the cost went
up last year have little chance of being able to vote this year, Kerwin
told Catholic News Service.
"Instead of building on the momentum created by this massive influx of
naturalization applications," said a Jan. 16 statement from CLINIC,
"many members of Congress and ... presidential candidates have supported
the denial of citizenship -- which is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment
-- to children born in the United States to parents without legal
status."
One of the candidates, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who is seeking the
Republican presidential nomination, has introduced legislation to revoke
the 14th Amendment.
In the CLINIC statement, Coadjutor Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento,
Calif., chairman of the organization's board of directors, said: "These
kinds of proposals are disappointing and distract the American people
from thinking seriously about how to strengthen the country by making
the U.S. naturalization process an accessible and model process."
"They're trying to overturn the 14th Amendment by legislative sleight
of hand," Kerwin told CNS.
"Our nation's strength and vitality depend on the successful
integration and contributions of its newest members," he said.
"Politicians should be debating the best ways to improve the citizenship
process and achieve immigrant integration, not how to deny citizenship
to children born here who will never know another country."
Kerwin noted that another presidential candidate, former Arkansas Gov.
Mike Huckabee, also seeking the Republican nomination, has said that as
president he would require the estimated 12 million immigrants who are
in the country illegally to leave the United States within a 120-day
period.
The Center for American Progress has estimated that deporting that many
people would cost a minimum of $206 billion over five years. The
estimate does not take into account the financial repercussions of
displacing that many workers.
For comparison, the 2008 fiscal year budget for the Department of
Homeland Security is about $40 billion. The department includes the
functions of transportation security, commerce, immigration, customs,
the Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the
Coast Guard.
In an interview with the editorial board of the San Diego
Union-Tribune, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger discouraged
candidates from trying to use immigration as an issue to get votes,
reported columnist Ruben Navarette in a Jan. 24 column about the
meeting.
Navarette wrote that Schwarzenegger, an Austrian immigrant and a
Republican, said that, "in a way, I understand why they're doing it,
because when it comes to close elections, it's all about winning. It's
not about sending a good message."
According to the column, Schwarzenegger told the editorial board, "The
problem we have right now is that, every single day, you hear about
illegals, people coming here illegally." That creates hostility, the
governor noted.
"These people didn't choose (to come illegally). It's the only way they
can get in here. It's not like you can stand in line and wait a few days
and then you can get in," the column quoted the governor as saying.
At the House Judiciary Committee hearing, Gonzalez described the
backlog legal immigrants are facing. His agency was swamped by more than
3 million applications for citizenship and other immigration benefits
last summer, ahead of a fee increase. In June and July alone, the number
of applications was 350 percent above the same period a year earlier, he
said.
Gonzalez said that under current plans to beef up staff it will take
until the third quarter of the 2010 fiscal year before the agency meets
his goal of processing naturalization applications within six months.
Kerwin and other advocates for immigrants said they warned Citizenship
and Immigration Services more than a year ago to expect huge increases
in applications because of rising fees and campaigns nationwide to get
immigrants to naturalize.
Under increases that took effect July 30, fees for citizenship and
other types of legal residency status went up by about 66 percent. The
application for citizenship now costs $675, up from $400.
By Pat Zapor
Catholic News Service
Jan. 24, 2008
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Catholic Legal Immigration Network called on
presidential candidates and elected officials to have a more productive
discussion of immigration. It also decried delays that it said will keep
many new citizens from voting this year.
In the 2007 fiscal year, 1.4 million people applied for U.S.
citizenship, double the previous year's applications, said Don Kerwin,
director of the U.S. Catholic Church's umbrella organization for
immigration services, known by its acronym, CLINIC.
It now takes 18 months to process a naturalization application, up from
seven months before the latest surge, said Emilio Gonzalez, director of
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, at a Jan. 17 hearing before
the House Judiciary Committee.
That means many people who filed for citizenship before the cost went
up last year have little chance of being able to vote this year, Kerwin
told Catholic News Service.
"Instead of building on the momentum created by this massive influx of
naturalization applications," said a Jan. 16 statement from CLINIC,
"many members of Congress and ... presidential candidates have supported
the denial of citizenship -- which is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment
-- to children born in the United States to parents without legal
status."
One of the candidates, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who is seeking the
Republican presidential nomination, has introduced legislation to revoke
the 14th Amendment.
In the CLINIC statement, Coadjutor Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento,
Calif., chairman of the organization's board of directors, said: "These
kinds of proposals are disappointing and distract the American people
from thinking seriously about how to strengthen the country by making
the U.S. naturalization process an accessible and model process."
"They're trying to overturn the 14th Amendment by legislative sleight
of hand," Kerwin told CNS.
"Our nation's strength and vitality depend on the successful
integration and contributions of its newest members," he said.
"Politicians should be debating the best ways to improve the citizenship
process and achieve immigrant integration, not how to deny citizenship
to children born here who will never know another country."
Kerwin noted that another presidential candidate, former Arkansas Gov.
Mike Huckabee, also seeking the Republican nomination, has said that as
president he would require the estimated 12 million immigrants who are
in the country illegally to leave the United States within a 120-day
period.
The Center for American Progress has estimated that deporting that many
people would cost a minimum of $206 billion over five years. The
estimate does not take into account the financial repercussions of
displacing that many workers.
For comparison, the 2008 fiscal year budget for the Department of
Homeland Security is about $40 billion. The department includes the
functions of transportation security, commerce, immigration, customs,
the Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the
Coast Guard.
In an interview with the editorial board of the San Diego
Union-Tribune, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger discouraged
candidates from trying to use immigration as an issue to get votes,
reported columnist Ruben Navarette in a Jan. 24 column about the
meeting.
Navarette wrote that Schwarzenegger, an Austrian immigrant and a
Republican, said that, "in a way, I understand why they're doing it,
because when it comes to close elections, it's all about winning. It's
not about sending a good message."
According to the column, Schwarzenegger told the editorial board, "The
problem we have right now is that, every single day, you hear about
illegals, people coming here illegally." That creates hostility, the
governor noted.
"These people didn't choose (to come illegally). It's the only way they
can get in here. It's not like you can stand in line and wait a few days
and then you can get in," the column quoted the governor as saying.
At the House Judiciary Committee hearing, Gonzalez described the
backlog legal immigrants are facing. His agency was swamped by more than
3 million applications for citizenship and other immigration benefits
last summer, ahead of a fee increase. In June and July alone, the number
of applications was 350 percent above the same period a year earlier, he
said.
Gonzalez said that under current plans to beef up staff it will take
until the third quarter of the 2010 fiscal year before the agency meets
his goal of processing naturalization applications within six months.
Kerwin and other advocates for immigrants said they warned Citizenship
and Immigration Services more than a year ago to expect huge increases
in applications because of rising fees and campaigns nationwide to get
immigrants to naturalize.
Under increases that took effect July 30, fees for citizenship and
other types of legal residency status went up by about 66 percent. The
application for citizenship now costs $675, up from $400.
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