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Gregorio Luperon High School was packed with local residents seeking assistance with their naturalization and citizenship applications from CUNY’s Citizenship Now! program.
Photos by Sandra E. Garcia
Looking to give themselves and their loved ones the most permanent gift of all, residents from Washington Heights filled the auditorium of Gregorio Luperon High School on Broadway and West 165th Street this past Sat., Dec. 17th.
In pursuit of citizenship, each sought assistance with his or her naturalization application.
The City University of New York (CUNY) held its annual Citizenship Now! application assistance day, complete with volunteer lawyers and immigration experts.
Local New York City Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez was present to remind the attendees of the event the importance of becoming a United States citizen.
“We would like all of [the attendees] to become United States citizens, because by doing so we will empower our community economically, socially, and politically,” said Councilmember Rodriguez.
Attendees expressed appreciation for the opportunity to be able to receive professional immigration help in their own neighborhood for free.
Ramon Mercado, who has lived in the states for over 10 years as a resident, has wanted to become a citizen for some time, but has not, as he explained, had the resources.
“What they are doing is great because I didn’t even know where to start,” said Mercado. “That I could come here and get assistance filling this application out the right way for free is great,” said Mercado.
Some came in the hopes of receiving a fee waiver for the application.
Josefina Mejia arrived with her children in tow, in order to prove that she couldn’t afford the fees. Mejia said, but for the fee, she is ready to be sworn in.
“It’s really hard to pay almost $700 when you have so many expenses, and two children that depend on you,” said Mejia.
“If I knew that you could not pay the fee, I would’ve worked it out before,” Mejia added.
Although more within the northern Manhattan community are seeking out citizenship, the degree to which accurate information on the process is readily available can still be limited, and is complicated by sometimes unscrupulous or unreliable brokers who offer immigration and legal advice – at a cost.
CUNY and the Citizenship NOW events help 5 – 6,000 people annually, explained Allan Wernick, director of the program.
“Every other weekend, we go to a community in one of the five boroughs and help with the citizen application process,” said Wernick. “We are one of the few programs that help people with fee waivers.”
And it seems that the local demand spurred an additional commitment to expanded services, as announced this past Saturday.
“The agreement we just made today with Allan is that we will do [this] twice a year from now on,” said Rodriguez. “We are doing it because there is a real need. We have people who have their green cards, but for one reason or another they have not decided to do their paperwork. When they come here they have a group of volunteers at their service.”
Citizenship services will double in the next year, confirmed Wernick.
“Because of the high demand for citizenship application assistance, we are going to start doing mass events, complete with lawyers from our other centers at our CUNY Xpress office at 181st and St. Nicholas Avenue. We are going to start one Friday a month and eventually we will do it every week,” said Wernick.
If you were unable to attend the event last Saturday, you can check the Citizenship Now program online at www.cuny.edu/citizenshipnow. You can also stop into the CUNY Xpress office on West 181st Street, between St. Nicholas and Audubon Avenues or call 212.568.4680 for more information.
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