Serrano Tells Chertoff: "Don't Increase Naturalization Fees"

Press Release

Serrano Tells Chertoff: "Don't Increase Naturalization Fees"

In a Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee hearing today, Congressman José E. Serrano told DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff that he strongly disagreed with the new plan to raise fees on immigrants seeking green cards or citizenship. Excerpts of the Serrano's remarks follow as well as video of the full exchange between Serrano and Chertoff.

"We have people who are here, documented, legally, who want to become citizens, with backlogs facing them everyday, and now with a criminal increase of 66 percent in the application fee," Serrano told Secretary Chertoff. "If I was chairman of this subcommittee, my first priority would be to tell you that you're not getting a penny of those $35 billion dollars you have coming unless you get rid of the fee increase. Because that fee increase takes the American dream of citizenship away from many people. They can't reach it. They can't make it."

"I know you could find money within the $35 billion to do what you have to do. But I think that if you wanted to do this, and send a message that if you're here legally, and you want to become a citizen, we will help you. We will not make it hard for you."

Secretary Chertoff maintained that the fees were necessary to improve the system and keep a backlog from developing. But as of June 30, 2005, the US Citizenship and Immigration Service estimated that it had about 1.2 million cases in its backlog, while immigrants' rights advocates assert that the true backlog is far greater than that number.

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