Backlog could deny vote to many new citizens

This is concerning. A Washington Post story Thursday says the disorganized Bush administration is unable to process the doubling in new citizens' applications, so a lot of people we're counting on the Vote Democratic may not become citizens in time for '08.

Repeat: This is concerning.

And it was leading the DailyKos when I logged on at midnight. Here's the link to the Washington Post story.

New citizens big in news again

Chairman Joe Garcia (standing) with two tables of volunteers waiting for new citizens to register to vote. June, Miami Beach.

Here’s the lead headline in Thursday’s New York Times (as seen in Florida, anyway): “Sharp Rise Seen in Applications for Citizenship.” First subhead: “A Sign of Hispanic Unease.” If this sounds familiar, check back to the June 22 post here about articles in the Los Angeles Times and Miami Herald about the flood of people taking the oath of citizenship at ceremonies in Miami Beach.

The NY Times piece has a related drift, focusing on a big jump in the numbers of people applying for citizenship. In May 115,175 applied, almost double the 65,782 last December.

What we’ve been doing in Miami-Dade County is to give vigorous help to the non-partisan groups that register new citizens to vote. Thousands of people concentrate in one place to attend these ceremonies, and all we have to do is be there afterward with a clipboard, smile and sign them up. Recently the ratio has strongly favored Democratic registration, sometimes more than 2 ½ to 1 over Republican signups – without overt persuasion.

The Times story adds detail to help explain this bonanza for our D side. It quotes a Californian who hadn’t considered becoming a U.S. citizen until he felt it was time to get politically active because his people were “not getting enough support.” Another said the same thing: “Now if I don’t like the way things are going, I can let the government know my opinion.”

This seems to be a new wrinkle in our country’s long history of immigration. In the past, haven’t most new immigrants concentrated on work and family and kept quiet politically? The NY Times report seems to find budding political activists among the newest citizens – people not willing to wait for the next generation of the U.S.-born to be active in politics. Is anyone surprised that they are unhappy with the way the Republicans are treating them?

So if someone stands up at the next county party meeting and urges that we redouble our efforts to register new citizens to vote, I’ll second that motion.

Beyond that, the NY Times story mentioned an initiative financed by the Illinois state government to help immigrants learn English and prepare for the citizenship test. It’s called the New Americans Initiative. Do we have something like that in immigrant-rich Florida?

An important strategy for the ’08 election: new Democrats

Crowd outside Naturalization ceremony June 14

Register more Democrats. Yes, indeed, there’s a way to elect a Democratic president in ’08, with more Democrats in Congress. All we need is more Democratic voters. And how do we get them? Some voters can be persuaded to vote Democratic – great! So we hone our message to make sure it’s easily understood and appealing and honest. But that may not be enough. We need new Democratic voters. Where to find them? One place is as new citizens are sworn in – thousands of them at a time.

That is an important leg of our strategy for ’08 in Miami-Dade County. We help staff the voter-registration tables at the ceremonies. We register Republicans and independents as well as Democrats, suppressing our partisan natures for the day, and at the end of the day, the numbers show why the Republicans must be slinking around with their tails between their legs:

At the naturalization ceremonies on Miami Beach June 14, 2007:

123 Democratic registrations, or 61.5 percent

48 Republican registrations, or 24.0 percent

29 No-party declared, or 14.5 percent.

The Democratic Party of Miami-Dade County does not lead the registration drive, rather it supplies volunteers to sign people up after they’ve taken the oath. Democratic Executive Committee Chairman Joe Garcia was among the most hard-working volunteers at the June 14 ceremony. Leading about 15 volunteers was Bob Goldstein, a veteran Democratic activist, who said the ratio has been favorable to the Democrats for past months, despite the Republican-style exhortations the new citizens experience in the ceremony.

The Los Angeles Times did a front-page feature on the Miami Beach voter signups. Tips therein on why new citizens are turning away from the Republicans: war in Iraq, bad policy on immigration. (You may have to register to access the LA Times' fine story. One telling quote from a new citizen: "I don't know whether Bush is a Democrat or a Republican, but whatever he is, I'm voting the other way.")

It’s a long way still to Election Day, but we have some clear things to do and things to avoid. Signing up new citizens must be a big goal.

Update: The Miami Herald published a story on the same event in Monday's local section. The Herald didn't draw any party-political conclusions, but the new citizens all were quoted as saying they favored a path to citizenship for current undocumented immigrations. The link.