Citizenship Promotion Act
of 2007 |
In March 2007,
Senator Barak Obama (D-IL) and Representative
Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced the Citizenship
Promotion Act of 2007. This bill, if enacted
into law, would authorize Immigration Services
to request and receive appropriations that would
make up the difference between current fees
charged to citizenship applicants and the
necessary resources needed to fund the Service.
The basic provisions of the Citizenship
Promotion Act are as follows:
Prevent Immigration Services from increasing
the naturalization fees until Congress develops
an oversight mechanism that would keep the USCIS
from implementing unreasonable fee increases --
as the agency now is proposing.
Improve the administration of the citizenship
tests for English, U.S. history and government.
The bill would require that the tests be
administered uniformly nationwide, there be no
extraordinary or unreasonable conditions placed
on applicants taking the tests, and the age,
education level, time in the United States, and
efforts made by citizenship applicants would be
taken into account when administering the tests.
Establish a national citizenship promotion
program, the New Americans Initiative, to
conduct citizenship outreach activities and make
grants to non-profit organizations to help
lawful permanent residents (LPRs) become U.S.
citizens, help non-profit agencies conduct
English language and citizenship classes for
LPRs, and carry out outreach activities to
educate immigrant communities to assist people
to become citizens and assist with the
application process.
Decrease the citizenship application backlog
by encouraging the Attorney General to complete
background checks within a reasonable period of
time and without sacrificing national security.
Ensure that low-income eligible LPRs whose
communities suffer the ill effects of the
digital divide would have an equal chance to
apply for citizenship as do other eligible LPRs. |
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