Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Immigrant groups, Santa Clara County to hold Citizenship Day on Saturday

About 190,000 Santa Clara County residents are eligible to naturalize, this group is trying to help them. The high fee is a problem for many of them - - Donna Poisl

By Ken McLaughlin, Mercury News

Over the past 13 years, the Santa Clara County Citizenship Collaborative has helped more than 120,000 people through the lengthy and often byzantine naturalization process to become American citizens.

But this year, selling the idea of citizenship might face its biggest hurdle.
The problem: Citizenship applications now cost a lot of money, while many low-income immigrants are hurting because the economy is in the tank.

"We realize that paying the rent must come first and food is second," and that paying a $675 fee to the federal government might be unaffordable, said Teresa Castellanos, interim director of the Santa Clara County Office of Human Relations.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.

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