Speech #990262428

Mr. Speaker. first of all I want to commend the chairman of the subcommittee and the ranking member. the gentleman from California for having. in such a timely and expeditious fashion. taken up this naturalization bill. Mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of H.R. 5558. a bill which streamlines the process by which persons become naturalized. There is no procedure and no ceremony more critical to a participatory democracy than naturalization. Through the naturalization process. an individual drops his or her alien status and becomes a citizen of the United States of America. Immigrants must prove themselves worthy of citizenship by voluntarily meeting certain requirements set forth in the law. The present system has been bogged down with administrative and logistical problems and has not kept pace with the exponential increase in applications for citizenship. The number of applications for naturalization has increased from 171.000 in 1981 to 286.000 in 1984. In my district alone the waiting period is 21 months with a current backlog of 14.000 applications in New Jersey. Other areas of the country are experiencing minor backlogs. This lack of uniformity is simply unfair. These persons are being denied employment opportunities. travel. the ability to confer immigration benefits on relatives. and other privileges of citizenship which they have rightfully earned. Most important. they are denied the right to vote. My bill seeks to address this specific hardship by making naturalization primarily an administrative function. as it is in most other countries of the world. Currently. the Immigration and Naturalization Service does virtually all the processing and preliminary determinations and then makes recommendations on the cases to the courts. The courts. however. have the role of final disposition in the manner of swearingin the applicant. It is generally recognized that the role of the court is almost exclusively ceremonial and that recommendations of the Attorney General are rarely overturned by the court. H.R. 5558 will streamline this complicated and burdensome twostep process by allowing the Attorney General to make determinations on eligibility for citizenship and perform the swearingin of the applicants. The bill specifically requires the Attorney General "to ensure that the public ceremonies conducted by the Attorney General for the administration of oaths of allegiance * * * are in keeping with the dignity of the occasion." The substantive conditions and requirements for naturalization would not be changed by the bill except that the period of time an individual would be required to reside in a State or INS district immediately before filing his or her naturalization application would be reduced from 6 to 3 months. Once the naturalization processing is complete. the applicant would be given the option of being sworn in as a U.S. citizen in a judicial or an administrative ceremony. That is. he or she could choose to be formally naturalized in the district court of the United States. where he or she resides or its territories or by any State court. Full protection would be provided for individuals under these streamlined procedures. The bill provides that a person whose application for naturalization is denied after a final hearing before an immigration officer may seek review of such denial before the Board of Immigration Appeals. The decision of the Board is. in turn. reviewable by the appropriate U.S. district court. This step is not taken lightly. The Congress. the executive branch. and the judiciary have all attempted to address the backlogs through legislation in 1981. through more funding and manpower. through management improvements. computerization and more logistical supportbut these efforts have met with only limited success. This legislation simply codifies existing practice in a more costeffective. efficient manner while relieving the applicant of onerous paperwork burdens and the maze of dealing with two different branches of Government. The intent of the legislation is in no way to diminish the importance of naturalization by removing it from the Judiciary. On the contrary. the intent is to adhere to the constitutional mandate that Congress "establish a uniform rule of naturalization." regardless of where the applicant for citizenship lives. I urge my colleagues support of this urgently needed legislation.