News
Immigration
Feb. 20, 2002
Immigrants Sue Over Denial of Fee Waivers
LOS ANGELES - Two public-interest law firms Tuesday sued the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service on behalf of low-income residents who have been denied a fee waiver to apply for U.S. citizenship.
Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County and the Western Center on Law and Poverty alleged that the INS California Service Center routinely denies fee-waiver requests in violation of the U.S. Constitution and the agency's own policies.
Since January 1999, the fee for applying for U.S. citizenship has risen from $95 to $310. The most recent increase took effect Tuesday.
"Citizenship shouldn't be based on a person's income or lack thereof," Robert F. Graziano, managing attorney for Neighborhood Legal Services, said at a press conference outside the downtown Los Angeles INS offices. "Granting a fee waiver for low-income residents of California should be the rule, not the exception."
Graziano said that Congress passed laws so that people on fixed and low incomes could apply for a fee reduction. But the California Service Center, which handles fee waivers for California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii, approves less than 5 percent of the fee-waiver applications, compared with an 85 percent approval rate nationwide.
But Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for the INS district office, said the INS is required by law to charge fees commensurate with its processing costs, which have risen to the current amount over the past three years. In addition, Kice said, the processing times have shortened dramatically in that period, from several years to six to eight months.
Kice said the INS reviews each fee-waiver request individually.
Accompanying Graziano at the press conference were two women who had been denied fee waivers.
Ingrid Mancilla De Rodriguez, 35, a legal permanent resident from Guatemala, has lived in the United States for 10 years. The unemployed medical assistant is a single mother of three, who is receiving government aid for a disabled child. She said the INS denied her request for a fee waiver because she visited her homeland in the past year, even though she told the INS that her family paid her fare.
Ana Gonzalez, a 28-year-old medical student from Mexico, has been a permanent resident for 14 years. The INS also denied her application, even though she qualified under law to receive assistance, Graziano said.
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Susan Mcraen
Daily Journal Staff Writer
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