Group eases the road to citizenship
Posted on Sunday, September 23, 2007
SPRINGDALE — Abraham Carvajal doesn’t expect a tricky path to citizenship.
Carvajal, 19, was born in Mexico and has lived in Arkansas since he was 7, when his father took a job as a pastor in Hope.
He graduated from Shiloh Christian High School in Springdale. He speaks fluent English and works as a teller at Regions Bank in Springdale. He “never got around to” changing his status from a legal permanent resident to a U. S. citizen.
Carvajal is the type of legal immigrant the Arkansas Citizenship Coalition intends to move toward citizenship.
Carvajal said he’s looking into naturalization because he wants to vote.
“I do believe that every vote counts,” he said. “It’s the major thing that separates me from Americans. Voting will be nice. You want to feel like you are a part of things.”
Before the coalition formed last year, seven Northwest Arkansas organizations worked separately to help immigrants learn English, gain citizenship and deal with other immigration matters.
Margarita Solorzano, executive director of the Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas, knew the groups weren’t coordinating. So while others in Arkansas deal with illegal aliens, the coalition strives to help eligible immigrants gain their citizenship. “It’s either a lack of knowledge about how to do it, or understanding that makes people not do it,” Solorzano said. “There are many who qualify and, for one reason or another, don’t do it.”
PAYING FOR HELP The organizations that formed the coalition collectively serve 3, 000 immigrants a year in Northwest Arkansas. They intend to use a $ 66, 000 grant from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation to reach an additional 750 immigrants who live in Northwest Arkansas. Among other things, the grant will be used to teach English, U. S. history and civics — the subjects that are part of the naturalization exam.
The foundation commissioned a study of the state’s immigrant population, determining its economic impact and demographic characteristics. Researchers at the Urban Institute in Washington and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill evaluated the economic impact of aliens in Arkansas and explored family, education and demographic issues in the community. The study’s findings, revealed in April, showed the state spent $ 237 million on such things as health care, education and corrections for immigrants, regardless of their legal status. Immigrants paid $ 257 million in taxes.
The study estimated there were 104, 000 immigrants in the state in 2005, and 48 percent were from Mexico. The second-largest group was from El Salvador (7, 000 ) followed by Guatemala (6, 000 ) and Vietnam (5, 000 ), the institute’s study showed.
Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, said Arkansas’ illegal population is disproportionate to the rest of the country.
The national average is 29 percent, while it’s estimated to be about 50 percent in Arkansas.
DIFFICULT PROCESS Last week, three attorneys told 20 people at a legal clinic at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale that it takes at least six months to be naturalized. The conversation at Monday’s legal clinic shifted between Spanish and English as Vicki Lee, Mauricio Herrera and Arminda Ferguson answered questions about citizenship. They had assistance from Solorzano and Frank Head, director of Catholic Charities and Immigration Services in Springdale.
Carvajal attended the meeting. He was confident he could move through the process quickly.
It’s not that way for many immigrants.
An immigrant typically must live in the U. S. as a legal, permanent resident for five years before being naturalized. There are exceptions. Immigrant who have served in the U. S. military, for instance, can qualify more quickly. So can immigrants married to a U. S. citizen.
The panelists explained how the fees charged by U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to apply for naturalization increased from $ 330 to $ 595 on July 30.
After filling out the application, providing all required documentation and studying for the naturalization exam, there’s also the important step of going through an interview with a federal immigration services officer in Fort Smith.
“You shouldn’t be fearful,” Head told those at the legal clinic.
He encouraged those who qualify to apply for naturalization.
“They can’t take citizenship away from you,” Head said. “You have to join al-Qaeda or something and I don’t know what else to lose it. If you are eligible, citizenship is a good thing for you and your family.”
Fayetteville resident Liz Flynn, a Peru native, married an American 20 years ago but didn’t apply for citizenship until June this year. She wants to travel abroad with her husband in February and wants to obtain citizenship and a U. S. passport by then. “I’ve postponed filing the paperwork for citizenship for forever,” she said. But Flynn failed to sign her application in June and had it returned to her by the U. S. Customs and Immigration Service. She signed it and returned it. Then it came back in early August. This time, the agency wanted a copy of the green card that makes her a legal U. S. resident, and it wanted additional money because the fees for naturalization had gone up. Flynn sent the copy and asked the agency to waive the fee because she applied before July 30. She hasn’t heard back and wonders about the status of her application.
NATURALIZATION Carvajal, Flynn and other immigrants hope to be where Eloisa Kriesel stood last week at the Jones Center.
Kriesel, a Tontitown resident who moved from Ecuador 10 years ago, was among 60 people who took the oath to become an American citizen.
The new citizens demonstrated they could both speak and read English and correctly answered 10 exam questions about U. S. history and government.
Before the naturalization ceremony, Carol Bellew, the field office director for the U. S. Department of Homeland Security in Fort Smith, asked for the pronunciations of names, so she could say them perfectly when presenting them to U. S. Magistrate Judge James Marschewski.
Bellew slipped up only a little as she read the names of Norma Villagrana and Luis Villagrana, a brother and sister from Rogers who were naturalized, and Bala Sivalingam, a Bentonville resident from India.
“The ones that taught me to do it right, I do them wrong,” Bellew told the 150 people at the ceremony. “I’m sorry. I can’t get the rhythm.”
No one seemed to mind.
Naturalization gives Kriesel and the others the right to vote, the right to serve on a jury if called and eligibility for government programs such as Supplemental Security Income and food stamps if needed.
“I have all the rights now,” she said.
Solorzano thought it all went well, and afterward talked of having more naturalization events. It’s one of the main purposes of the coalition, she said.
“We were trying to make it a memorable moment,” she said. “I think we did that.” CITIZENSHIP EFFORTS The organizations that formed the Arkansas Citizenship Coalition are: Catholic Charities and Immigration Services, Springdale Fayetteville Adult Education Center
Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas, Springdale
Jones Center for Families, Springdale
Northwest Technical Institute, Springdale
Northwest Arkansas Community College Adult Education Center, Rogers Ozark Literacy Council, Fayetteville
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
