CLINIC calls for toned-down political rhetoric on immigration

Published: 2008-01-24

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Catholic Legal Immigration Network called on presidential candidates and elected officials to have a more productive discussion of immigration. It also decried delays that it said will keep many new citizens from voting this year. In the 2007 fiscal year, 1.4 million people applied for U.S. citizenship, double the previous year's applications, said Don Kerwin, director of the U.S. Catholic Church's umbrella organization for immigration services, known by its acronym, CLINIC. It now takes 18 months to process a naturalization application, up from seven months before the latest surge, said Emilio Gonzalez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, at a Jan. 17 hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. That means many people who filed for citizenship before the cost went up last year have little chance of being able to vote this year, Kerwin told Catholic News Service. "Instead of building on the momentum created by this massive influx of naturalization applications," said a Jan. 16 statement from CLINIC, "many members of Congress and ... presidential candidates have supported the denial of citizenship -- which is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment -- to children born in the United States to parents without legal status."

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