Justice. State. and Judiciary that by providing the INS with these additional funds. as this bill does. there should no longer be any doubt that these programs are top priority matters to Congress and should also be top priority matters to the INS. The bill also recognizes and responds to the serious problems within INSs naturalization program. The program. known as Citizenship U.S.A.. gave citizenship to criminals and aliens who were in deportation proceedings. These results were clearly the result of bad procedures and insecure fingerprint checks. H.R. 2267 eliminates nonlaw enforcement entities who formerly were able to take fingerprints. Businesses such as Pookies Parcel and Post and Juanitas Beauty Salon should not be in the business of taking fingerprints used to obtain the most valuable thing the United States could give. that of citizenship. The bill also requires that criminal checks be completed before naturalization takes place. a procedure too often overlooked in the first years of Citizenship U.S.A. I support this requirement. I also hope that as the naturalization procedures are improved and electronic fingerprint checks are implemented. items which my colleague. the gentleman from Kentucky has agreed to fund. that the waiting time for processing naturalization applications is significantly reduced. Also. the bill funds the Justice Departm6nts audit of past improprieties in Citizenship U.S.A. and its efforts to denaturalize criminal aliens and aliens already in deportation proceedings. I thank my colleagues on the Committee on Appropriations for their great efforts on funding the INS. and I ask my colleagues to support this bill.
Keywords matched
naturalization deportation