[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 17, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1306]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CITIZENSHIP U.S.A.

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 17, 1996

  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Citizenship 
U.S.A. Program established by the Immigration and Naturalization 
Service.
  Citizenship U.S.A. is the largest effort in the history of the 
Immigration and Naturalization Service to help eligible immigrants 
become U.S. citizens. This combined effort will allow the INS to be 
current with citizenship applications by the end of the summer. In 
order to achieve this goal, INS is focusing on updating three major 
components of the citizenship system--hiring of additional people, 
improving the process, and expanding INS's partnership with local 
officials and community organizations.
  This program's necessity has been established by a dramatic rise of 
citizenship applications from an average of 300,000 annually before 
fiscal year 1994 to more than 1 million in fiscal year 1995, with more 
than 1 million additional applications expected for fiscal year 1996. 
The Miami district has been especially hard pressed, receiving nearly 
107,000 N-400 applications in fiscal year 1995. This is easily a 174-
percent increase over fiscal year 1994.
  In order to meet the above challenge, INS has already approached 
several critical milestones as a result of this program. In February, 
INS opened the new Miami Citizenship Center. This serves as the new 
home for the entire Miami citizenship staff and is dedicated to the 
testing and interviewing of naturalization applicants. INS has also 
substantially increased its officer and clerical staff throughout the 
country, and has been able to extend its hours of operation 
significantly as a direct result. Citizenship U.S.A. has also 
contributed to completions of N-400 citizenship applications. As a 
result of this program, the Miami district completed 29,898 N-400 
applications in the first 6 months of fiscal year 1996, more than the 
total number completed in all of fiscal year 1995. The Miami district 
expects to swear in an average of 24,000 new citizens each month during 
the peak period of this initiative.
  I congratulate INS for this meritorious program.

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