PORT ANGELES ¬ — They came from the four directions. Each one sought two things: freedom to vote and freedom from hassle.
At the Jefferson-Clallam Pro Bono Lawyers office on Saturday, 28 people set out on the path toward naturalization, meaning U.S. citizenship.
That’s up from the 20 who attended last year’s Citizenship Day, said Nancy Rohde, director of the Pro Bono Lawyers.
“It was a smashing success,” added Lisa Seifert, an Olympia-based immigration attorney who spent Saturday volunteering in Port Angeles.
These would-be “Americans by choice,” as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service calls them, were more diverse this year than last, Seifert added.
While 17 of the 20 who came to 2008’s Citizenship Day were originally from Mexico, only seven of Saturday’s prospective citizens are from that country, she said.
The rest came from all over Europe, China, the Philippines, Canada — and one from the Micronesian island of Yap.
If you happen to be born inside the United States, you’re automatically a citizen of this country, Rohde began.
But for the rest of the world, she said, becoming American usually means years of legal residency; a wait of six months or more for processing of the citizenship application; completion of an interview and test on U.S. history and government; establishment of “good moral character,” and payment of a $595 charge plus an $80 biometrics — fingerprinting — fee.
The nearest interview and test site is in Tukwila, a two-and-a-half-hour, 129-mile drive from Port Angeles.
The dozens who took part in Citizenship Day, which Rohde said was held in Port Angeles in hopes of serving people from Forks, Sequim and Jefferson County, have been legal residents of the United States — some for decades.
Their reasons for at last seeking citizenship were, like their birthplaces, all over the map.
Border Patrol
For Kaspar Megert, a native of Switzerland who immigrated with his family 40 years ago, the U.S. Border Patrol road blocks last summer on the North Olympic Peninsula were a primary factor.
The Border Patrol’s intensified presence “reminds me of Nazi Germany,” said Megert, who was 5 when he came to Ohio with his Swiss father in the 1960s.
Megert could have continued to renew his residency status, aka green card, every 10 years. But as he read more about the Border Patrol’s activities in and around his home in Sequim, he decided the time had come to become a citizen, like his wife and two young children.
“I don’t feel like being hassled,” he said.
The Border Patrol, which stepped up activity on the Peninsula last year, operated checkpoints on Highway 101 north of Forks and near Discovery Bay, as well as on state Highway 104 near the Hood Canal bridge last summer.
Evigael Torres Bollas, a landscaper who works in Sequim, also has a permanent residency card, issued in 2004. It won’t need renewing until 2018.
But Bollas, 29, came with his wife and children to Citizenship Day, and spent the morning going over application forms with volunteer paralegal Bill Schwarz of Seattle.
“This is important to me,” said Bollas’ wife Stephanie Torres, “because I want him here with his family.”
‘Only safe status’
“These days the only safe status is U.S. citizenship,” added Cal Uomoto, another Seattle paralegal who volunteered in Port Angeles.
Residency can be revoked, Uomoto said, if the resident violates residency rules or is convicted of a crime, major or minor.
“Families get split apart; sometimes the breadwinner disappears; sometimes both parents are taken away,” Uomoto said.
The only immigrants who are permitted to apply for citizenship are those who already have permanent legal residency status, added Bonnie Wasser, an immigration lawyer from Seattle.
In Washington state, there are an estimated 170,000 green card holders, she said.
Weigh cost
With application fees totaling $675 per person, some resident families weigh which member will seek citizenship since they can’t afford the cost for everyone, Rohde added.
Some immigrants lack the English skills — and the confidence — to take the test, and work multiple jobs that prevent them from enrolling in English courses.
Margaret King, a Forks resident who grew up in Scotland, has lived in this country since 1967.
“This is home,” she said.
But because she was unsure of her knowledge of civics and history, King procrastinated until Saturday, when she came to start filling out the forms that lead to the citizenship application.
As for those who’ve been working here without green cards, there’s no clear path toward legal residency or citizenship, Seifert said.
“They’re stuck, even if they have a U.S. citizen spouse or children. That’s the reason we have 12 million people undocumented in this country.”
But there’s an exception, Rohde added. If an undocumented immigrant has been the victim of a crime, such as domestic violence, she or he can apply for a visa by contacting the police and testifying against the perpetrator.
Federal law also grants that victim’s right to apply for a work permit, the precursor to legal residency. From there, the immigrant can seek citizenship.
Rohde added that she’s helped five Forks women who’d suffered spousal abuse apply for legal status.
Once an immigrant reaches the final step in the citizenship process — taking the test — he or she must speak and write English.
Peninsula College offers English as a second language classes across the North Olympic Peninsula. The classes are sometimes well-attended, said John Jones, a volunteer teacher in Sequim.
“The amount of students is up and down. It fluctuates depending on the activities of the Border Patrol,” Jones said.
Antonio Frutos, 30, has been a legal resident of Sequim for four years. A cook at the Oak Table, he’s happy to raise his children in a small town, and in America, where he believes they will have more opportunities than they would have in Guanajuato, Mexico, where he grew up.
Frutos didn’t hesitate when asked why he wants to be a citizen instead of a permanent resident.
Right to vote
“I’ll be able to vote for school levies. That is one of the most important things we should care about. Our kids,” he said, “are the future of Sequim.”
Across the United States, 660,477 people became citizens in 2007, the latest year for which statistics are available from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (www.USCIS.gov). The leading countries of origin were Mexico with 122,258, India with 46,871, the Philippines with 38,830, China with 33,134 and Vietnam with 27,921.
Alison West, a Canadian who lives in Port Angeles, said Citizenship Day provided an opportunity that was superior to the Immigration Service Web site. She and her American husband travel a lot, and deal with a lot of paperwork, West added. Then there’s the renewing of the green card every 10 years.
Citizenship would mean “that weight is lifted off,” she said.
“Once you have citizenship, you’re free.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
