Washington, DC – The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., applauds the introduction today of the “Citizenship Promotion Act of 2007 ” by Senators Barack Obama (D-IL), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Ken Salazar (D-CO), and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Representatives Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Mike Honda (D-CA), Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), Hilda Solis (D-CA), Ed Pastor (D-AZ), and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ).

“Promoting citizenship must be a priority for the United States. Citizenship is the key to fulfilling the American Dream and full participation in our democracy,” stated Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO. “We need to do everything possible to ensure that all eligible legal immigrants have fair and equal access to the citizenship process, and we applaud Senator Obama and Representative Gutierrez for their leadership on this important issue.”

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that it would be raising the application fees for naturalization applications and other immigration benefits by a significant amount, with some fees more than doubling.

“These fee increases and other measures are placing clear and unwarranted obstacles in front of legal immigrants eager and ready to become U.S. citizens. We ought to be promoting citizenship, not making it more difficult,” continued Murguía.

The “Citizenship Promotion Act of 2007” would encourage naturalization, maintain naturalization fees at their current level, allow Congress to appropriate funds for USCIS to improve its infrastructure, create a National Citizenship Promotion Program, reduce the amount of time applicants must wait for background checks to be completed, and ensure that naturalization applicants will not be forced to use expensive electronic filing systems. NCLR will work with coalition partners throughout the country to promote passage of the “Citizenship Promotion Act” this year.

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