Mr. Speaker. I am talking about the many of us who recognize that there are decent. productive. legal immigrants trying to become good and productive American citizens. Sometimes there is one thing in the way. a backlogged naturalization process. As a Member of this Congress. I have worked with the administration towards eliminating the long backlogs and improving the naturalization process for many hardworking immigrants who wait as long as a year and a half to get naturalized after they have qualified to be naturalized. Recently I supported the INS request to pout more funds into improving our naturalization system. This successful effort allows the INS to spend $76.6 million to make progress. processing "adjustment of status applications" and "naturalization applications" much easier. These critical funds will allow the INS to hire more than 1.000 muchneeded additional staff and utilize newly improved technology to more efficiently process the surging backlogs. It will help also in the INS efforts to improve customer service. It is very important to point out that the money for naturalization is not taxpayer money. It is from the immigrants themselves and from the application fees that they pay into the system. Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to see that this unprecedented commitment by the INS to improve the naturalization process and eliminate many of the backlogs will allow many people to become citizens this next year. I ask my colleagues to join me in making the 4th of July a day in which our communities do their own swearingin ceremonies. to welcome our newest citizens on board. I will be performing such ceremonies in Watsonville.
Keywords matched
naturalization naturalized immigrants