March 7, 1997
Citizenship Applications Backlog Threatens Welfare
Aid for Many
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By CELIA W. DUGGER
[N] EW YORK -- The backlog in processing
citizenship applications has grown so large
that many immigrants will almost certainly lose
their welfare benefits because they cannot get
citizenship credentials before an August deadline,
federal immigration officials say.
The slowdown in approving the applications began
late last year. Officials said then that they
hoped it would be temporary, but so far it has
persisted. And in recent months, the number of
immigrants applying to become citizens has grown,
greatly increasing the number of people in the
pipeline.
The longer wait for citizenship could not have
happened at a worse time, advocates for immigrants
say. Elderly and disabled people who are not
citizens are, with some exceptions, scheduled to
lose their benefits in August and September as a
result of a welfare law adopted last year.
David Rosenberg, who heads the citizenship program
at the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
said that once an application is filed, the
naturalization process now takes nine months or
longer in New York City, Los Angeles and Miami, an
increase from five or six months last year.
The Social Security Administration last month
began notifying 544,000 aged and disabled
immigrants -- 86,000 in New York City -- that they
will lose their benefits in five or six months if
they have not been naturalized by then.
"I'm very scared," said Salvador De Leon, a
76-year old retired carpenter from the Dominican
Republic who lives alone in a rented room in upper
Manhattan's Washington Heights and receives
Supplemental Security Income. "I can't work
because I have a weak heart and SSI is my only
income."
Federal officials say three factors have slowed
the processing of citizenship applications: a
computer system relying on obsolete software, a
large increase in the volume of applicants, and
more stringent, time-consuming procedures for
criminal background checks.
The panicky rush to naturalize, visible in New
York City centers for the elderly where immigrants
are rolling to citizenship classes in wheelchairs
and filling out applications with trembling hands,
has helped drive the number of citizenship seekers
to a record high in recent months.
From October to December, the number of people
applying for citizenship rose 55 percent
nationally and 96 percent in New York City
compared with the same period the year before. INS
officials expect 1.8 million people to apply this
year.
In New York, the state, the city and
philanthropist George Soros' nonprofit Emma
Lazarus Fund are planning to put up a total of $4
million to help immigrants apply for
naturalization this year.
But the New York Immigration Coalition, an
umbrella association of more than 100 groups that
serve immigrants, estimates that it would cost $17
million, or $200 a person, just to provide
citizenship classes and other help to the old and
disabled people expected to have their benefits
cut off in New York City.
Those who lose federal Supplemental Security
Income and food stamps, typically worth $600 to
$650 a month in New York, could then apply for
about $350 a month from a welfare program financed
by the state and city. But there is now a 45-day
waiting period before an applicant can qualify for
aid, a delay that advocates say would leave
thousands of immigrants with no income for at
least a month and a half.
Social workers, doctors and others who assist this
vulnerable population of immigrants say they are
worried not only that the immigrants will
temporarily lose benefits that pay for rent and
food until they can be naturalized, but also that
the very old will be too anxious and forgetful to
learn enough English and American civics to pass
the citizenship test.
Enriqueta Echeverria, a 78-year-old widow from
Ecuador who lives in Washington Heights, admits
she is very nervous about taking the test. She was
confident as she named the colors of the American
flag but grew flustered when asked to name the
introduction to the United States Constitution.
"The Supreme Court?" she tentatively asked,
knowing she was wrong. (It's known as the
Preamble.) "I study every morning, but sometimes I
forget."
Rosenberg, of the immigration service, said
citizenship would not be a solution for many
immigrants. Some will not be eligible because they
have not been legal residents for five years.
Others will fail the test or become citizens too
late to avoid losing their federal benefits
temporarily.
"We're trying to lower expectations," he said.
"There are a lot of people who won't qualify, and
logistically it's going to be hard for people who
are not already in the process to become citizens
before the deadlines."
This week, the INS was harshly questioned by
Republican congressmen at several hearings about
the 180,000 immigrants who were naturalized
without undergoing criminal background checks. The
congressmen said the immigrants were made citizens
as part of a the Clinton administration's
politically motivated push to generate voters for
the November election, while INS officials
contended that the failure to perform the
background checks was the result of a flawed
system swamped with record numbers of cases.
Whatever the reasons for the problem, the solution
imposed in December -- that the INS must receive a
written clearance for each citizenship applicant
from the FBI before the oath is administered --
has significantly slowed the nationwide
naturalization process.
In June, 187,281 people were naturalized
nationally, 43,138 of them in New York City. In
December, the number of people naturalized
plummeted to 42,281 nationally, and 7,291 in New
York.
Not surprisingly, the number of immigrants waiting
in line to become citizens has grown to about one
million, from 700,000 last year.
"For the last few months, we have been
particularly slow," Rosenberg of the immigration
service said. "If you look ahead at the current
low rates of production, it's very scary. We had a
couple of districts that swore in almost no one."
But Rosenberg said he believed the pace would pick
up as computer problems are fixed and the new
process for criminal background checks becomes
established.
The 15-year-old computer software that serves the
New York district was built to handle a fraction
of the volume of citizenship cases and is written
in a language that is now "completely obsolete,"
Rosenberg said. Just a handful of people even know
how to write in the language the computer
understands.
"They keep telling us it's just about fixed," he
said.
Advocates for immigrants say they fear that the
computer system will continue to malfunction. And
they also worry that the INS is being overly
optimistic about how quickly it can gear back up,
especially as it starts working with a growing
number of old and disabled people who will take
more time to process.
Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company
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