IMMIGRATION LAWYER - US CITIZENSHIP

U.S. Raid on an Immigrant Household Deepens Anger and Mistrust - New York Times

Link: U.S. Raid on an Immigrant Household Deepens Anger and Mistrust - New York Times.

Awakened by banging on the front door and the shouts of strangers inside her family’s sprawling suburban home, Erica Leon, 12, thought at first that the house was on fire.

Then her bedroom door burst open, she said, and armed men in blue bulletproof vests pushed in, demanding to know if she was hiding someone. They pressed on to the room where 4-year-old Carson was asleep with their mother, and pulled off the covers.

“They started screaming at my mom real bad,” Erica said. “I wasn’t crying, but I was, like, terrified. Like, who are you guys?”

They were federal immigration agents hunting for an illegal immigrant — Erica’s long-absent father, Patrizio Wilson Garcia, who was ordered deported after his 2003 divorce from Erica’s mother, Adriana, and has not lived in the house since. But they had entered a three-generation immigrant household where everyone was an American citizen by naturalization or birth.

Citizenship applications surging among immigrants

Link: Legal immigrants seek American citizenship in surging numbers | csmonitor.com.

"The battle cry is 'Ya Es Hora. Ciudadania!' (It's time. Citizenship!)," says Marcelo Gaete, senior programs director for NALEO, which helps applicants with the process. "The response has been so strong that at times we have a hard time keeping up."

The increase here – expected to be even sharper in March and April – is fueled by three factors, observers say. First is an increased desire by America's 8 million permanent legal residents to vote – the key benefit of citizenship – spurred by a year of debate over immigration policy and massive demonstrations in large US cities.

Second is a proposed fee increase to apply for citizenship effective June 1 – from $400 to $675. Third is revisions in the civics test applicants must pass to become citizens, now being tested in several cities and rolled out in 2008.

Citizenship requests soar before big changes - LA Times

Link: Citizenship requests soar before big changes - Los Angeles Times.

Citizenship applications are skyrocketing in Southern California and across the nation, as green card holders rush to avoid a proposed fee increase, a revised civics test and possible changes in immigration law.

Applications filed in Los Angeles and six surrounding counties shot to 18,024 in January from 7,334 in the same month last year, a 146% increase, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Nationwide, the number hit 95,622, up from 53,390, a 79% increase.

The jump — both locally and nationwide — is the largest in a decade, officials said. The numbers of applications first spiked last March with mass immigrant rights rallies and saw the most dramatic increase after the new year.

Pujols 'thrilled' to become U.S. citizen - AP

Link: Pujols 'thrilled' to become U.S. citizen - Sports - MSNBC.com.

Albert Pujols has won an NL MVP award, a Gold Glove and a World Series. He added a perfect 100 on his U.S. citizenship test to his resume this week.

The St. Louis Cardinals’ star became a U.S. citizen Wednesday during a ceremony at the Eagleton Courthouse. Pujols’ wife, Deidre, arranged to have about two dozen relatives and friends watch U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber swear in Pujols.

Chester Moyer, the officer in charge of the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service office in St. Louis, said Thursday that Deidre Pujols served as her husband’s tutor. Moyer said the 27-year-old Pujols spent about a year preparing for the citizenship exam.

The Price of Citizenship - NYT

Link: The Price of Citizenship [EDITORIAL] - New York Times.

What this means for aspiring immigrants is simple: more cash upfront. The application fee for citizenship would rise to $595 from $330. The fee for permanent residency would increase to $905 from $325, and charges for bringing in a foreign spouse or employee would more than double. Refugees and victims of human trafficking or sex crimes would still have their fees waived, and other applicants could request hardship waivers.

There are no easy formulas for pricing services like these, but advocacy groups on both sides of the immigration debate agree that the increases are exorbitant, and we agree. The proposed fees would become a means test for new Americans, slamming the door on many people who desperately want to be part of this country and have much to contribute.

The blame clearly lies with Congress, which has required the agency to support itself entirely with fees. Congress should abandon this misguided rule and allocate the money to run the agency adequately and efficiently. All Americans benefit from the healthy, invigorating flow of naturalized citizens, and all Americans — not just the newest, least powerful ones — should help pay for it.

Immigration Charges for Cuban Militant

Link: Immigration Charges for Cuban Militant - washingtonpost.com.

A Cuban exile suspected of plotting the bombing of a jetliner 30 years ago in Venezuela was indicted Thursday on charges of lying during naturalization proceedings, the Justice Department said.

The presence of Luis Posada Carriles on American soil has put federal officials in a difficult position _ critics accuse the U.S. of harboring a terrorist, yet federal policy has typically protected anti-Castro Cuban exiles.

Notice expected soon on new citizenship test

Link: DallasNews.com - Notice expected soon on new citizenship test.

Thousands of letters are expected to be sent out as early as next week informing immigrants in 10 cities they can volunteer to try out a new citizenship test.

The letters will be accompanied with study guides to help potential participants study for the trial exam. Federal officials hope to start trying out a new set of draft questions about a month after the letters are sent.

Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Homeland Security Department, has been working to redesign the test that immigrants take to become citizens. Officials say they want the test to be more meaningful.

Draft questions that could end up on the final test will be tried out on volunteers in Albany, N.Y.; Boston; Charleston, S.C.; Denver; El Paso, Texas; Kansas City, Mo.; Miami; San Antonio; Tucson, Ariz.; and Yakima, Wash.

Test takers only have to get six of 10 questions right to pass the civics portion of the test.

The agency already has dropped two questions from the 144 it had planned to try out. One asked what the federal minimum wage is and another asked test takers to name a battle in the American Revolution.

First-Baby Sweepstakes Fuels Immigration Debate - NYT

Link: First-Baby Sweepstakes Fuels Immigration Debate - New York Times.

It seemed like a perfect formula for good publicity: A national sweepstakes would award a $25,000 United States savings bond to the first American baby born in 2007, courtesy of the toy chain Toys “R” Us and its Babies “R” Us division.

Instead, after disqualifying a Chinese-American baby girl born in New York Downtown Hospital at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s, the toy company finds itself caught in the glare of the immigration debate, stumbling over the nation’s new demographic realities.

UPDATE (Jan. 7) - The company quickly reversed itself after the New York Times story ran, and awarded the grand prize to the couple and their baby despite the parents' legal status. See here.

The citizenship test: New, improved and wrong

Link: The citizenship test: New, improved and wrong | Salon.

With much fanfare, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service recently announced the introduction of a redesigned naturalization test. Trumpeted as a great improvement over the old examination, the new format will "focus on the concepts of democracy and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship." Some critics and immigrants' rights advocates have complained that the new citizenship test is too demanding, asking questions that nearly all Americans, whether native born or naturalized, would be hard-pressed to answer. But the degree of difficulty is not the only problem.

The pilot test and the approved answers (as posted on the USCIS Web site) are riddled with misinformation, inaccuracies and outright errors. As many as 19 of the 144 questions are flawed. They either are woefully ambiguous, or accept simplistic answers that are factually wrong, or exclude answers that are clearly correct.

Many Origins but One Pledge: To Protect and Serve the City - New York Times

Link: Many Origins but One Pledge: To Protect and Serve the City - New York Times.

Afghanistan, Albania, Argentina, Australia.

That’s where the latest crop of New York City police officers comes from.

Also Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize and Bosnia, along with some 50 other countries.

The 1,359 police cadets who graduated in yesterday’s ceremony at Madison Square Garden included 284 immigrants, who hailed from a record number of 58 nations , including Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador and Egypt, police officials said.

...Several of the officers became citizens only a few months before entering the police academy, like Phat It, who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after his family fled Cambodia.

“Whether you trace your heritage to Pakistan or Parkchester, to the Dominican Republic or Ditmas Park, you all love our country and you all love our city,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg told the graduates.

The department is growing more diverse by other measures, too. About 28 percent of the new officers are Hispanic, 17 percent are black, and 8 percent are Asian, the police said. About 18 percent are women.