[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 106 (Tuesday, June 27, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H6379]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         NATURALIZATON REMARKS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California, [Mr. Farr] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, as we approach the 4th of July celebrating our 
citizenship and the good fortune to live in a country where people can 
elect a government that derives its strength from the faith of the 
government, Let us take this moment during the 4th of July recess to 
reflect on a lot of people who will be citizens of the United States.
  Mr. Speaker, I am talking about the many of us who recognize that 
there are decent, productive, legal immigrants trying to become good 
and productive American citizens. Sometimes there is one thing in the 
way, a backlogged naturalization process.
  As a Member of this Congress, I have worked with the administration 
towards eliminating the long backlogs and improving the naturalization 
process for many hard-working immigrants who wait as long as a year and 
a half to get naturalized after they have qualified to be naturalized.
  Recently I supported the INS request to pout more funds into 
improving our naturalization system. This successful effort allows the 
INS to spend $76.6 million to make progress, processing ``adjustment of 
status applications'' and ``naturalization applications'' much easier.
  These critical funds will allow the INS to hire more than 1,000 much-
needed additional staff and utilize newly improved technology to more 
efficiently process the surging backlogs.
  It will help also in the INS efforts to improve customer service. It 
is very important to point out that the money for naturalization is not 
taxpayer money. It is from the immigrants themselves and from the 
application fees that they pay into the system.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to see that this unprecedented commitment 
by the INS to improve the naturalization process and eliminate many of 
the backlogs will allow many people to become citizens this next year. 
I ask my colleagues to join me in making the 4th of July a day in which 
our communities do their own swearing-in ceremonies, to welcome our 
newest citizens on board.
  I will be performing such ceremonies in Watsonville, CA, on July 7. I 
hope a year from now that the President will offer the lawn of the
 White House for the national 4th of July swearing-in ceremony and that 
every Member of this Congress will sponsor residents in their district 
of participate in such a swearing-in ceremony.

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