Citizenship applicants should expect long wait

Immigrants waiting to become U.S. citizens "shouldn't get their hopes up" that projected long delays in processing applications will be shortened, said Emilio Gonzalez, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, who was in Sacramento on Tuesday.

Labor unions with immigrant members and Latino voting rights advocates – who began a nationwide citizenship campaign a year ago – say Gonzalez's agency should have been prepared for the flood of new applications, which was widely predicted.