The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service is being pressured by Hispanic interest groups to rush more than 1 million citizenship applications through the approval process before the November elections. Immigration and citizenship officials say they don’t have the manpower to do that. But the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) is saying pressure needs to be exerted to get this done before November.
First, voting is a privilege that comes with citizenship. If someone wants to become a citizen simply to vote in the next election, I question their commitment to this country’s ideals. Become a citizen, then vote. There is no place in the law that says an applicant needs to be approved by the next election, so NALEO should get off that kick.
The nation’s immigration and citizenship officials should do their jobs, do it well, exercise due diligence to make sure the people who gain citizenship are fully qualified to receive that privilege, and don’t let any ethnic interest group harangue them into making quick and risky decisions.
