News
Page 4
Street Roots • May 13-19, 2016
Forty-eight immigrants from 20 countries took part in a naturalization ceremony May 5 at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland. Roberto
Valla, left, originally from E l Salvador, said h ep la n s to vote, after having lived in the U S. fo r 2 6 years. “I want to be sure o f my safety,” he said.
Trump pushes immigrants
to apply fo r U.S. citizenship
BY EMILY GREEN
STAFF W R ITER
"■"^residential candidate Donald Trump
1-^ released his contentious immigration
plan in August Between that time and
January, the average number of applications
for U.S. citizenship
each month was an
average of 14.5
percent higher than
during the same
period a year earlier,
according to U.S.
Citizenship and
Immigration Services
data.
Oregon saw an even greater increase in
the number of immigrants eager to become
citizens, with 20 percent more applications
for citizenship filed through Portland’s
USCIS office during the last half of 2015
than the last half of 2014.
While an uptick in citizenship is typical of
election years, immigration lawyers and
advocates say Trump’s anti-immigrant
sentiment has motivated many people
Experts attribute uptick
to desire to vote against
candidate who espouses
anti-immigration rhetoric
who’ve lived legally in the U.S. for decades
as permanent residents, to come forward
and apply for citizenship so they can vote in
the presidential election.
“This is a really key election for
immigrant rights, both nationally and locally
here in the state of Oregon,” said Andrea
Miller, executive director of Causa, a
statewide immigrant rights organization that
offers clinics to assist Latinos with
citizenship applications.
In Oregon, what are perceived to be three
anti-immigrant initiatives could be on the
ballot this November: an initiative that
would require proof of citizenship to vote;
an initiative to make Oregon an English-only
state; and an initiative that would require
employers to verify the legal «tatus of their
employees.
“At every clinic we ask people why are
they applying to become a U.S. citizen,”
Miller said. At recent clinics, she said,
“almost every single one of the individuals
said they were applying for U.S. citizenship
because they wanted to be able to vote in
the 2016 election - largely due to the anti
immigrant rhetoric that they’ve been
hearing from presidential candidates for the
last year now.”
This was the case for Silvia Sanchez, of
Oregon City, and her daughter Adriana
Sanchez, of Keizer.
Their family moved to Oregon from
central Mexico nearly 20 years ago when
Adriana was 6 years old. Until earlier this
year, they had been living and working
legally in the U.S. as permanent residents,
Adriana as a substitute teacher’s assistant,
and Silvia as a food service worker.
They both became U.S. citizens in March
and are looking forward to voting in the May
Democratic primary. Both said they will
likely vote for Bernie Sanders, although
Adriana is still going back and forth between
the two party candidates.
Adriana said she was motivated to earn
her citizenship after “hearing so much
negativity toward illegal people and
immigrants.”
She said she’s also tired of watching
immigrants working in the restaurant and
See CITIZEN SH IP, page 5