New Schedule on Citizenship Termed 'Insult'
The leader of a Hispanic group suing the government to force it to eliminate an extensive backlog of citizenship applications is calling a new schedule set by the embattled federal immigration agency this week an "insult" to prospective citizens waiting in line to be approved.
The group, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, filed a motion yesterday in federal court calling on the judge to force the agency to work faster to move through the thousands of applications filed by immigrants aiming to vote in the 2008 presidential election. Last month, the group sued the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services over the naturalization delays.
On Wednesday, after months of criticism, Citizenship and Immigration Services announced jointly with the FBI a new schedule to complete outstanding security background checks, one of the main factors delaying the processing of citizenship applications. The agencies said that by May they would have completed security checks on applications in the system for three years, and that by July those that have waited for two years would be completed.
The agencies don't anticipate finishing all of the applications filed a year ago until November. The agency was inundated with a surge of applications last July, as immigrants applied to beat a fee increase implemented that month and with the desire of voting in the election.
"It's frankly an insult to people who have done everything asked of them to become citizens," the executive director of the defense fund, Cesar Perales, said.
The group is calling for the CIS to finish all applications that have been pending for 180 days as of yesterday to be finished by September 22, in time to register to vote for the election.
A spokesman for CIS, Shawn Saucier, said in an e-mail message that he could not comment on the lawsuit, but added: "The threats to the safety of the United States are not just going to disappear. The plan put forward yesterday by USCIS and the FBI will end frustrating delays some applicants for citizenship face without jeopardizing our nation's security."
