Agency Buried in Applications

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people who applied for naturalization and other
immigration benefits to beat a midsummer fee increase are caught in a paperwork pileup that threatens the chance for some to become U.S. citizens in time to vote in next November's presidential election.

The application backlog is so large that Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Homeland Security Department, is months behind schedule in returning receipts for checks written to cover fees — an early step in the process.

"Were we caught off guard by the volume? Let's just say it was anticipated it would increase. It was not anticipated it would increase by that much," said Emilio Gonzalez, director of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Some groups that have been waging national campaign to help 1 million legal residents become citizens and vote in 2008 fear the pileup will hurt their efforts.

"Everybody keeps saying immigrants don't want to be part of this country, they don't want to assimilate and here people are coming in droves to show how much they want to be part of this country and here are these barriers. I think it's unconscionable," said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of Service Employees International Union.