A sign of just how frustrated state and local government officials are becoming with the growing backlogs in citizenship applications, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown has stated his goal of putting thousands of city employees to work helping the Immigration and Naturalization Service to process the paperwork. The Mayor’s call was made at a meeting of the Bay Area Organizing Committee, an alliance of church, labor and community organizations that advocates for the rights of immigrants and poor citizens. Presumably, the call also stems from the fact that states and cities are footing the bill to assist legal immigrants cut from the welfare rolls in last year’s welfare reform legislation. By becoming citizens, those cut off may again become eligible to receive benefits. But because of the increase in the number of naturalization applications (which is actually blamed on the welfare bill), many applicants for citizenship are finding themselves waiting as long as two years to complete the process.
Brown’s plan would have thousands of city workers devote one day to assist the INS in processing the applications. According to Brown, if each city employee were to process only five applications, “the backlog of citizenship applications in San Francisco” would come to an end. Also, Brown called for the streamlining of the naturalization adjudication process. The mayor is set to meet with INS officials in December to hammer out the details.
Mayor Brown would like to see his plan become a model for the nation in order to get the INS back on track for speedy citizenship application processing. The INS has stated that its goal is to process all citizenship application cases within six months. Right now, its unusual for citizenship applications filed anywhere in the country to be processed in less than a year.
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