Immigration debate drives citizenship

SEATTLE – Nobody had to tell Ivan Maeda that applying for citizenship was in his best interest. The 29-year-old from Guatemala, who lives in West Seattle, filled out his citizenship forms in January, almost five years after he got his green card.

“You never know what might happen in a few years,” he said. “I’m doing this to make it safe.”

Interest in U.S. citizenship is on the rise among immigrants because of uncertainty over how Congress plans to reshape the nation’s immigration system.

More than 500 immigrants from across Washington were scheduled to take the oath of allegiance to become U.S. citizens Tuesday at ceremonies in Seattle and Centralia.

A record number of green-card holders have applied for citizenship this year.

During the first four months of the year, 251,385 citizenship applications were submitted to the Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services, up 18 percent from the same period the previous year.

In May, 140,000 applications were downloaded from the agency’s Web site – almost twice as many as a year ago.

Holding a green card makes an immigrant a legal permanent resident of the U.S. who can work, own property and even join certain branches of the armed services. Among those eligible to apply for a green card are very close relatives of U.S. citizens, political refugees and winners of a lotterylike drawing open only to people in certain countries.

But a green card does not automatically lead to citizenship. That’s a separate process.

In Washington state, during the first five months of the year, 22 percent more green-card holders applied for citizenship than in the previous year.

At a recent annual conference of the American Immigration Lawyers Association in San Antonio, immigration officials noted the increase in applications and predicted the trend will continue, said Steve Miller, a Seattle immigration lawyer and head of the Washington chapter.

“The numbers are up fairly dramatically,” he said. “We are hearing from folks who’ve had their green cards for 40 years.”

In May, the U.S. Senate passed a measure that would, among other things, create a guest-worker program and grant amnesty to many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. The bill has yet to be reconciled with a House bill calling for building a wall along the border with Mexico and deporting millions of illegal immigrants.

Jackie Johnson came to the United States from Jamaica 24 years ago, green card already in hand.

Five years later, she was eligible for citizenship.

But the 40-something computer specialist, who works in downtown Seattle, never pursued it. It didn’t seem that important, she said.

Now, talk about immigration has made her reconsider. She has downloaded the citizenship application form and plans to fill it out.

“The public at large has a great misconception of immigrants – legal or not,” she said. “They think we don’t pay taxes, that we don’t carry our weight. They also think that if you’re not a citizen, it means you don’t want to be here, which is not true.”

Johnson said citizenship will make it easier for her to travel and allow her to vote. The recent rallies have mobilized large numbers of people to register to vote, advocates say. “I feel I have more to say now,” she said of the political system in this country.

“I’m in my 40s now and have lived here longer than I lived in Jamaica. It’s the responsible thing to do.”

Advocacy groups and immigration attorneys have been urging green-card holders to apply for citizenship as soon as they qualify.

A candidate for citizenship must be of good moral character and a legal permanent resident in the U.S. for at least five years (three years if married to a U.S. citizen).

This spring, as large numbers of immigrants marched in city streets around the country, the immigration-lawyers association held a series of workshops across the state to help immigrants apply for citizenship. About 150 people participated, said Andrea Crumpler, an attorney with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. She said the immigration-lawyers organization is considering adapting the workshops nationally.

“People are nervous,” Crumpler said. “With the pending changes, folks just want to fill out the paperwork and go forward with it.”