Habla Blog

Newsday.com notes that Westchester County, New York’s agreement with Department of Justice has been renewed for 2008. The agreement, which mandates that the county provide assistance to Spanish-speaking voters was a resolution to a lawsuit based on the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act. “Those measures require Spanish-language information and assistance at the polls, and access to provisional ballots when voters are blocked from casting ballots at polls.” A three-judge panel approved of the extension of the agreement into 2008, because the county has shown improvement in their response to help Spanish-speaking voters have full access to the polls.

Mercurynews.com from Silicon Valley reports that there has been an anticipated surge in applications for naturalization and citizenship. The fees were raised from $400 to $675 on July 30, 2007, and there has been an upswing in the number of applications. “In July and August, the agency received more than 500,000 applications for naturalization - more than three times what it normally receives in a two-month period.” Some immigrants want to become citizens before the 2008 presidential elections. One of the immigrants interviewed, Ms. Moreno said that she would like to vote for Hillary Clinton. ‘ “It’s terrible,” said Moreno, 62. “It’s a long wait. . . . I want to vote. Mrs. Clinton needs my vote. Maybe my vote will put her in the White House.”‘

Some immigration attorneys think that the delay in processing citizenship applications is motivated by something other than a large workload. “I absolutely think they are politically motivated,” said Los Angeles immigration attorney Carl Shusterman. “The Republican candidates have spent the last few months demonizing immigrants. Now, the party is disenfranchising immigrants. Shusterman said the Bush administration is doing whatever it can to decrease the number of Latino voters, including stretching out the naturalization process.”

For more information on Spanish for Legal Professionals or Samantha Cardwell-Ward go to www.wardspeaking.com or call 573-356-0406.