A group of Hispanic officials called Monday for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to speed up the application process for U.S. citizenship.
One of them, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said there is a backlog of applications because the INS has reduced its clerical staff. During a news conference in front of the Dirksen Federal Building, 219 S. Dearborn St., Gutierrez said he is drafting legislation that would require INS to devote a greater share of the revenue from its $95 citizen application fee to processing the applications.
“There was $70 million collected last year from people who want to become Americans,” Gutierrez said. “That money was put in the general fund and not into the INS.”
He estimated that the wait for processing a citizen application has increased from about six months in 1993 to about a year.
Jennifer West, an INS spokeswoman, said she could neither confirm the estimate nor comment on the staff shortages.
