Partners in ICIRR’s New Americans Initiative (NAI) held a press conference to demand that USCIS drop any plans to increase citizenship fees further and encouarge all eligible Residents to apply before its too late. Assembled leaders including Roberto Lopez from Centro Sin Fronteras and David Zverow from Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, encouraged eligible immigrants to participate in the NAI workshops on Saturday, October 24, at Malcolm X College and in Hanover Park.

The last time the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) raised fees for citizenship and other immigration applications in July 2007, the number of naturalization applicants plummeted. Citizenship application volume decreased nationwide from 1,217,071 in 2007 to 547,719 in 2008—a drop of 62%. In Chicago naturalization applications fell by 58% from 57,709 in 2007 to 27,368. Application numbers have yet to recover: during the first six months of 2009, applications in Chicago fell even further from 2008 levels, from 13,096 (January-June 2008) to 12,771 (January-June 2009).

Raising fees again will not result in increased profits for USCIS and will only put citizenship further out of reach for more families. As ICIRR members fight back against proposed fee increases, eligible applicants are urged to apply as for Citizenship as soon as possible. Numerous NAI Partners are holding workshops this weekend, and many others have accessible office hours, free of charge.

Grazyna Zajaczkowska from the Polish American Association, Sima Quraishi from Muslim Women Resource Center, and Vivian Xu from Chinese American Service League expressed their concern about the possibility of a new increase that would prevent Latino, Polish, Korean, Chinese, Muslim and other communities from Chicago and suburbs to become U.S. citizens. All participants recommended legal permanent residents to take the step now before it gets more difficult and apply for U.S. citizenship.