Lawmakers say flood of immigration applicants wasn't surprise

By SUZANNE GAMBOA

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - A deluge of immigration applications in the months preceding a filing fee increase last year should have been foreseen, lawmakers on Thursday told Bush administration officials.

Previous increases in immigration application fees have been preceded by spikes in applications, said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. Application increases have also been seen in years before elections because people want to vote, she said.

Some 1.4 million people applied for naturalization in the 2007 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.

More than half were submitted in the summer months, just before Citizenship and Immigration Services, a Homeland Security Department agency, significantly increased applications fees. The flood of applications means people who applied after June 1, 2007 to become citizens won't naturalize in time to vote in November's elections.

"This should not have been a surprise. It was totally predictable," Lofgren said after presiding over a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the applications backlog.

Emilio Gonzalez, Citizenship and Immigration Services director, said his agency did anticipate an increase in applications and the increase was manageable. "What we did not anticipate, and I'll be honest with you, is a 350 percent increase in one month," Gonzalez told the subcommittee.