Posted on 03/07/2008 8:22:22 AM PST by Liz
A lawsuit filed in federal court by Latino immigrants seeks to force immigration authorities to complete hundreds of thousands of stalled naturalization petitions in time to vote in November. The class-action suit was brought by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund on behalf of legal Hispanic immigrants in the New York City area who are eager to vote.....The suit demands that the agency meet a nationwide deadline of Sept. 22 to complete any naturalization petitions filed by March 26.
Latino groups hope to summon the clout of the federal courts to compel the Bush administration to reduce a backlog of citizenship applications that swelled last year. Despite protests over the delays, the immigration agency is currently projecting wait times of 16-18 months to process petitions.
The reality is that large numbers of Latinos will not be able to vote in the elections because of these delays, said Cesar A. Perales, president of the defense fund. Now the world will know that the Latino community expects the Bush administration to get this done on time. It is astonishing the government should be so unresponsive to immigrants who have enthusiastically taken all the steps to become Americans, said Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino group that supported the suit.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And the Mexican government encourages them to continue to vote in Mexico’s elections as well.
ping
Force THIS!!
LOL. I will bet you that the FDA flouts deadlines for approving new drug applications longer than this agency sits on citizenship applications. IOW, Big Pharma is treated worse than these folks.
Government is by its nature arrogant and unresponsive. That's why we want as little of it as possible in our lives.
I don't like the backlog of applications, I especially don't like government waste, but this is not the way to accomplish the goal.
Oh, and just in case anyone missed it - these are about people who want to become American citizens, not the millions upon millions upon millions who couldn't bother to fill out the forms for Reagan's amnesty program, and have no desire at all to become citizens of this nation.
THIS IS WHAT McCAIN SUPPORTS
Amnesty Will Cost U.S. Taxpayers at Least $2.6 Trillion
Heritage Foundation | June 6, '07 | Robert Rector
EXCERPT McCain is for S.1348, the Senate amnesty bill that was recently defeated. S.1348 would grant amnesty to nearly all illegal immigrants currently in the United States. Overall, the net cost to taxpayers is likely to be at least $2.6 trillion. Illegal immigrants generally have very low education levels. 61 percent of illegal immigrant adults lack a high school diploma. Illegal immigrants have a poverty level that is roughly twice that of native-born Americans.
The Senate's bill would offer amnesty and a path to citizenship to 12 to 12.5 million illegals currently in the U.S. In addition, its lax evidentiary standards would encourage millions more to apply for amnesty fraudulently. Because there is no numeric limit on the number of amnesties that could be granted under the bill, the actual numbers who would receive amnesty under the bill could be far higher.
Eligibility for government benefits means that the former illegal immigrant or his family members obtains the same benefits as a U.S. citizen would have. Children born within the United States to illegal immigrants, including Z visa holders, are potentially eligible for all welfare benefits from the moment of birth through the reat of their lives. In addition, adult Z visa holders and their foreign-born children will be eligible for medical care under the Medicaid Disproportionate Share Program. Z visa holders will be given lawful Social Security numbers which makes them eligible for two refundable tax credits: The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit. These credits provides cash welfare assistance...
Irrespective of employment history, amnesty recipients will become eligible for 60 different federal welfare programs five years after receiving legal permanent residence. When the amnesty recipients reach retirement age, total benefits received will OUTSTRIP TAXES PAID BY ROUGHLY SEVEN TO ONE. (Excerpt) Read more at heritage.org
I am opposed to dual citizenship. Take your pick, but don’t expect the protection and the benefits of both.
Well I think the Immagration Officials should do this ASAP ... starting with those “legal immagrants” from countries most distant from the USA border first!
I’m wondering why the MSM doesn’t translate the name of this group every time they run a story about them.
Think people would start getting a clue if they ran the story with “THE RACE” in them? To finally see the racist heart of this group? That they do everything and push for things that benefit THE RACE (mex/latinos)? That the real race-hating nutjobs in these groups want to create an independent latino state of ‘Aztlan’ out of CA, NV, AZ and parts of UT?
They’re racists and the MSM says nothing. Their very name is racist. “THE” RACE. Just give ‘em a swastika over a taco background and you’ve got them nailed.
Aren't Puerto Ricans already US citizens? If so, why would this group have standing to bring a court case? Just curious.
We gotta get that on a tee shirt.
If our government wants people to enter our country legally, they need to get their act together. (I cringe when I think of the government trying to run our health care.)
It’s time for a Million Minuteman March in Washington DC this summer before the conventions. Anybody on board?
See, this is why the Republicans won’t need conservatives anymore.
They’re going to vote anyway, legally or not. We could stop them if we enforced the law, but politicians seem to be intentionally blind to this point.”
I think that is exactly what happened this last Tuesday in Texas. I think lots of illegal intruders voted and they voted for Hillary.
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