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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

NY Immigrants Back to Court to Demand Vote

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Friday, August 8, 2008   

New York, NY — Lawyers say they plan to appeal Thursday’s ruling that effectively denies tens of thousands of immigrants the right to vote in the upcoming presidential election, as a consequence of a big backlog in citizenship applications. U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence McKenna dismissed the case, which sought to force the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to process backlogged applications in time for Election Day Nov. 4. Government lawyers admitted that things may be slow, but argued that citizenship paperwork could not be approved until FBI checks are complete.

Cesar Perales, with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, says his group plans to file a motion to reconsider the ruling.

"It was real negligence on the part of the government not to be ready in a Presidential election year to process the increased numbers of individuals who would want to become citizens in order to vote."

It would be wrong for the court to let this case die, says Perales, because tens of thousands of immigrants will miss out on the right to vote in a critical election, simply because of the backlog in processing applications.

"A large number of the people who are still waiting to be naturalized are people who have had all of the checks. Not just the FBI name check, but they've passed their civics exam, they've passed their English exam, and it's just the negligence of USCIS that has caused further delay."

The National Immigration Forum issued a report Thursday that finds the average backlog for processing citizenship applications in big states like California and New York is still about 14 months. The report urges the federal government to do a better job staffing citizenship application offices in cities that have the largest numbers of applicants.

Perales believes the court should reconsider because there are thousands of immigrants in New York who have completed all of the background checks, but still have no decision on their citizenship applications, so they won't get to vote.

The government told the judge it has cut the backlog down from an estimated 55,000 immigrants to approximately 30,000 who are awaiting a citizenship decision in New York.

A report of the case, Milanes v. Chertoff, is available at
.





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