Immigrants Rush to Seek Citizenship

Morning Edition, July 30, 2007 — For the past week, legal immigrants have been rushing to submit applications for citizenship, in part because fees for doing so rise dramatically Monday. But the rush is also part of a larger surge in naturalizations that analysts say has been spurred by Congress' failure to pass an immigration overhaul in recent years.

Through May of this year, more than half a million people had filed forms to become citizens — up 60 percent from last year, which was already substantially up from the year before.

The federal immigration agency counts 8 million legal residents eligible to become citizens. Last year, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, or NALEO, found two main reasons people hadn't taken that final step: lack of information and fear of the process. Starting in January, NALEO has worked with Spanish-language newspapers and television stations to help Hispanics overcome those obstacles.