Petition to help older immigrants

A Petition

to modify the current Immigration and Naturalization Service rules to permit legal immigrants 70 years or older who qualify for citizenship to take the citizenship test in their native languages.

January 1, 1997

Hon. William Jefferson Clinton
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC

Dear President Clinton:

By signing this petition, we respectfully urge you to use all your authority and influence to effectuate the necessary changes in the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s operating procedures and all related laws so that legal immigrants aged 70 or above who apply for U.S. citizenship would have the option to take the citizenship test in their respective mother tongue.

We believe that all immigrants in the United States should learn how to read, write and speak English even if they prefer to continue to speak their native tongues at times. Thanks to your strong support for legal immigration and for family reunion, over the past decade many U.S. citizens and legal immigrants have been able to reunite with their aging parents by bringing them to this country, and many of these seniors now qualify to apply for U.S. citizenship.

But as you well know, as one ages it becomes increasingly difficult to learn a new tongue, and many of these seniors are unable to gain enough English proficiency to take the citizenship test. Under current rules, a legal immigrant must be 50 or older and have been in the country for 20 years, or 55 or older and have been in the country for 15 years, to have such an option. That means a grandmother who came at 65 but failed to learn sufficient English must wait until she turns 80 to be able to take the test and become a citizen.

With the passing of the Welfare Reform and Immigrant Responsibility bills, this grandmother is in even greater peril because under these new laws her rights to many public services and benefits are being taken away unless she becomes a U.S. citizen.

We realize that you might be concerned with the added expenses to the government such changes may incur. We suggest that the INS enlist the support of the many community organizations in the immigrants’ neighborhoods, such as churches, non-profit agencies, etc. to provide language assistance on a voluntary basis. Alternatively, the applicants may be required to provide their own translators.

Mr. President, we are signing this petition trusting that you will be able to deliver on this humanitarian gesture. After all, seniors 70 and older are not taking away anybody’s job. They just want to spend their remaining years peacefully and comfortably with their children and grand children. Isn’t that what family values are all about?

To Volunteers:
Please circulate this petition for signatures. Use separate sheets if necessary. Each signator should print his/her and address, and sign. Please send the completed signature sheet(s) to AAPC, P. O. Box 113, Mt. Freedom, NJ 07970-0113.

Petition Signatures

Name (Print)		     Address			Signatures

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