Inspector General Report on "Citizenship USA" Initiative
Posted Aug 11, 2000

Citizenship USA was a program undertaken in fiscal year 1996 to reduce enormous backlogs in naturalization processing. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Justice, after conducting an exhaustive investigation, has released its report on the "Citizenship USA" initiative. The program has come under fire as Members of Congress believed that the move to naturalize large numbers of applicants relatively quickly was instigated for the purpose of gaining more voters for the 1996 election. The OIG report confirms, however, that this program was in fact a backlog reduction effort in response to lengthy naturalization processing times. Naturalization processing times exceed three years in some jurisdictions, and such delays are not acceptable.

While the OIG found the INS's motives legitimate, the report faulted the INS for being disorganized and for inadequately training its staff. The report notes that these and other problems existed prior to Citizenship USA, but the push to complete cases more quickly may have exacerbated some of the problems. The report recognizes that the INS has recently made substantial improvements in the quality and consistency of naturalization adjudications.

After the Citizenship USA program backfired, it took INS several years to once again try reducing its naturalization processing time frames. In the last couple of years, more funds have been allocated to naturalization processing, and we have seen substantial improvements in certain locations. Still, in many parts of the U.S. it is common for the naturalization process to take two or three years. Fiscal year 2001 budget proposals from the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House all provide for some level of increased funding for naturalization. We will have to wait and see whether there will be any further improvement.