Latinos File Suit Against the U.S. Charging
Their Right to Become Voters is Being Withheld
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2008
CONTACT: John Garcia, PRLDEF, (212) 739-7513
The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund filed suit on behalf of Latinos today, charging that the United States government has failed to meet one of its core responsibilities - to grant citizenship and the right to vote to those entitled to it.
Because of a backlog on processing naturalization applications, more than 1 million applicants, mostly Latinos, have had citizenship withheld and with it, the ability to vote and fully participate in determining the future of the country.
Though the government has declared that applications should be acted upon within six months, hundreds of thousands of people have been waiting up to three years for a decision.
These increased delays have imposed severe hardships on many of these longtime residents:
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They cannot vote.
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They are deemed ineligible for important benefits and jobs.
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They can not sponsor their children, parents and spouses for citizenship.
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They cannot travel freely.
PRLDEF is acting with the support of national Latino organizations, including the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund and the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda.
“We’ve already witnessed unprecedented numbers of Latinos going to the polls during this election season. Hundreds of thousands more are being denied that same opportunity,” said Cesar Perales, PRLDEF’s President and General Counsel. “They have been fingerprinted, passed background checks, paid their application fees, they passed their English test, proven their knowledge of our nation’s history and still their citizenship is being withheld.”
Hundreds of thousands of Latinos across the country have sought citizenship in order to vote in this year’s elections during this time of widespread anti-Latino, anti-immigrant sentiment. Last week in Texas, Latino citizens came out in record numbers to vote in the presidential primaries.
In 2001, when the process took eight months, President Bush set a goal of six months from start to finish for processing applications for immigration. Today the average application takes approximately 16-18 months to process.
In New York alone, over 90,000 legal U.S. residents have been waiting for up to three years for their naturalization applications to be processed. Currently, 1.1 million foreign born New Yorkers are currently eligible for citizenship, according to the NY State Immigration Coalition. Another 400,000 New Yorkers will be up for citizenship in the coming years, according to the Coalition.
“Thousands of immigrants will be wrongly denied the most wonderful opportunity our government offers us, the ability to participate in the democratic process, unless the Court grants the relief sought by our clients.” added Foster Maer, one of PRLDEF’s attorneys on the case. “When people follow the rules, so should the government.”
The New York Legal Assistance Group, a not-for-profit public interest law firm based in Manhattan, is co-counsel with PRLDEF on the case. NYLAG provides a wide range of legal services, including consultation, direct representation, impact litigation, advocacy and community education, to low-income New Yorkers who would otherwise be unable to afford or receive legal help. NYLAG has been involved for several years in class action litigation challenging delays in the processing of naturalization applications, and NYLAG's Immigration Protection Unit represents thousands of NYC's immigrants in individual cases.
Michael Sant'Ambrogio, NYLAG attorney on the case, said, "The government has been sitting on our clients' applications for years. We have no choice but to seek relief from the Court."
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