Immigration Reform News 2014: NY Joins Chicago and LA to Help Immigrants With Program
New York City has joined Chicago and Los Angeles in launching a national citizenship campaign aimed at helping immigrants expedite the processing of their US citizenship application.
The program, called the Cities for Citizenship, was announced recently by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio as he joined fellow mayors Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago and Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles during a news conference in New York City on Sept. 17.
The program will provide counseling, legal assistance and microloans to immigrants who have legal and permanent address in New York City to enable them to gain citizenship quickly.
De Blasio touted the advantages of the program to both the immigrants and the city. "From increased economic activity to larger voting and tax bases, the advantages of citizenship will not only expand opportunity to our immigrant families, but to all New Yorkers and residents nationwide," he said.
De Blasio said through the program, qualified immigrants are provided free legal services to expedite their naturalization process. So far, more than 7,600 New Yorkers have participated in citizenship workshops while more than 1,800 New Yorkers have been given assistance in completing their naturalization applications since 2012.
He said the program will be extended to city agencies and libraries to reach more eligible New Yorkers.
For his part, Garcetti said Los Angeles has created civic education workshops for immigrants, providing them with education materials in public libraries throughout the city's 72 libraries. Since the launching of the program, Garcetti said 12,000 immigrants have already benefitted from the workshops.
In Chicago, Emanuel cited his administration's New Americans Initiative which, he said, has already assisted some 90,000 immigrants and their children in gaining U.S. citizenship for the past six years.
The three mayors said they were compelled to act since studies have shown that immigrants who are eligible to become US citizens fail to do so because of high costs, lack of English proficiency and lack of knowledge on the application process.
A survey on Spanish-speaking immigrants conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center showed that 26 percent did not apply for naturalization because of personal reasons. A large majority of the respondents said the high cost of naturalization was the biggest obstacle to their quest for naturalization. A few others cited personal reasons and administrative hindrances.
The cost of gaining US citizenship has risen from $225 in 2000 to $680 in 2008. Renewing a green card for 10 years now costs $450.
Two nonprofit groups – the Center for Popular Democracy and the National Partnership for New Americans – in tandem with the University of Southern California have released the results of a study to support the Cities for Citizenship campaign. The study showed that naturalized immigrants increase national earnings by 8 to 11 percent. The study said the additional incomes help boost the nation's economy.
Meanwhile, Sen. Bob Menendez said he expects President Obama to issue an executive order revamping the nation's immigration laws.
Visiting Jersey City to oversee the naturalization of 40 immigrants, the Democratic senator said he expects the presidential order to be "big and bold."
The presidential directive is expected to simplify visa rules, boost border security and provide a clear path to citizenship for some of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.