After 18 Years in the US, Manuel Martinez Wants to Belong "100 percent"
Manuel Martinez was 17-years-old when he left the small town of Tochimilco, Mexico in search of a better life in the United States. He spent years studying English, working up to a union plumber position at a major Manhattan hotel, and saving to buy his family’s home in Brooklyn. But with all that he has accomplished, he still feels he’s still missing a key element to that “better” life: full United States citizenship.
“I want to be 100 percent part of this country,” Martinez says.
Due to the current backlog at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), Martinez does not know when he will be able to meet that goal. Since his naturalization exam and interview in May of 2006, Martinez has received no determination on his application, nor has he been given an appointment date for becoming sworn in as a naturalized United States citizen.
Five years ago, CIS took on average eight months from the date of submission to process and approve citizenship. Now that process can take up to three years. That could further delay Martinez’s access to what he said are some of the benefits of citizenship: he would like to bring his mother Emelia to the United States. He would also like better access to social services and the right to vote.
“Even though people say one vote doesn’t count, one vote is still one vote,” he says. “I want to vote for the person I believe in and I have faith will be a good president for the next four years.”
He said he values the Democratic process. “I know many Latinos don’t like to vote,” he continues. “Even citizens don’t like to vote.” He attributes this to a lack of confidence in democracy because of corruption in immigrants’ home countries. “In Mexico there’s a lot of corruption,” he says. “Over there they used to pay you to vote. People that I knew, especially in small villages, did it. They give you food for a whole month and that’s how they used to buy the votes.”
He is sure that here his vote would be important. “But it looks like I’m not going to vote in this election,” he lamented. “Hopefully [the naturalization process will] move faster and I’ll get citizenship before November.”
Though Martinez is not a citizen, he is an active community member. He owns the Brooklyn home where he lives with his wife Sonia and their three U.S.-born children. Sonia and Manuel are very involved with P.S. 10, where Stefanie, 11, Crystal, 7 and Ismael, 5 go to school. Sonia, who is also a permanent resident from Mexico, takes English classes there in the evenings. Before they bought the house they attended the community meetings at local police precinct 72.
Eighteen years after coming to Brooklyn, he has made a life for himself here. Full citizenship would complete the transition.
“I don’t like to sit and wait, I like to get my things done soon and fast” Martinez says.
“I understand the wait time, but also there’s a limit. That why we spend a lot of money on filing fees and applications. And every year they increase the rates. I paid $475. Now it costs over $600. It has increased 30 percent, but what about the [wait] time?” he asks.
“I really don’t want to wait another year to get my citizenship,” Martinez says. “I want to get my citizenship yesterday.”
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