Long path to citizenship

The immigration reform bill proposes to create a pathway to citizenship for 11.5 million immigrants living illegally in the U.S. The committee approved the amended Senate Gang of Eight immigration bill on May 21 by a 13-5 vote, passing the bill out of committee, according to an Associated Press report.

“We wanted our presence to be felt on this,” said Apple Valley resident Rocio Prado, 21, who attended the hearings in Washington D.C. to support the Campaign for Citizenship with other Southern California families and people of faith.

“We were there all that day, and it was just to let the senators know that we were supporting this and wanted it to be done,” Prado said.

According to Thomas Weiler, a High Desert organizer for Inland Congregations United for Change, the High Desert Campaign for Citizenship organizes people of faith to voice support for reforming a “broken” immigration system.

Prado, a senior liberal arts student at California State University San Bernardino and an active member of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Hesperia, also met recently with staff representatives of Rep. Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, in an effort to continue dialogue on immigration reform with his constituents.

“I hope that the voices of local families are heard, and that people realize that this is something that needs to be resolved,” she said. “Families like my own have waited for decades for a chance to no longer live in fear.”

Prado said her mother waited 20 years to finally have a chance to become a citizen, all the while raising a family and providing her daughters an education.

“It took my mother a long time to establish her citizenship — it was very expensive, and it wasn`t until this year that my mother was able to afford to go through with it,” Prado said. “There are so many barriers to getting citizenship, and we want this to pass so everyone can have a chance to have an opportunity to live freely here.”

Prado`s Mother, Sabrina, said she applied for her permanent residency in 1993.

She had to wait eight years to qualify for a work permit, then had to pay a $1,200 fine to ask for a pardon because she was here illegally, Sabrina Prado said in Spanish, translated through her daughter.

She was also asked to pay a $350 fee for her work permit plus a $500 for a consultant to complete and file her paperwork.

After having a work permit for one year, Sabrina applied for her residency. In 2003 she became a permanent resident and paid another fee — this time $480 for her resident card that was good for 10 years.

“Once I was a permanent resident I had to wait five years so that I could qualify and apply to become a citizen,” she said.

Unable to afford both her daughter`s college fees and the cost of applying for full citizenship, Sabrina said she delayed her citizenship by putting her daughter`s education first. According to Sabrina, she needed $680 to apply for citizenship plus another $500 for the consultant.

In the meantime, she chose to renew her permanent resident card with another payment of $480.

“With a lot of sacrifices we saved up the money to pay for my citizenship,” she said.

After interviewing with Immigration and Naturalization Services and taking the government test on Oct. 29, 2012, she was sworn in and became a U.S. citizen on Nov. 30, 2012.

“It took a lot of time, work and sacrifices but I am proud to say that I am an American citizen,” she said.

The proposed legislation creates a new program for low-skilled foreign labor and would permit highly skilled workers into the country at far higher levels than they currently are, according to the Associated Press article. 

The bill also requires the government to take costly new steps to guard against future illegal immigration.

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