Hmong American advocates blame INS for low participation
By Frederic Frommer/ AP
Less than 6 percent of eligible Laotian American and Hmong American veterans have taken advantage of a year-old law that makes it easier for them to become U.S. citizens. With the law set to expire in November, advocates are scrambling to extend it for another 18 months.
Slightly more than 2,500 people have become citizens under the law, which waives the requirement that applicants take the citizenship test in English, according to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The Lao Veterans of America, which worked with the late Rep. Bruce Vento, D-Minn., to pass the original bill, blames the INS for the small turnout.
Other Hmong American advocacy groups say a lack of resources has hindered efforts aimed at signing people up. Those efforts include offering American history classes in Hmong.
Last year’s law allows Laotian Americans, who during the Vietnam War were recruited by the CIA for covert military actions — most of whom are Hmong — to take the citizenship test in their native language. The citizenship test includes questions about U.S. history and government.
The rationale was that the Hmong language did not have a written form until recently, making it difficult for veterans to learn English. The legislation imposed a cap of 45,000 people.
One person who was able to become a U.S. citizen because of the law is Chong Ge Cha, who served as a Marine in the covert war and now lives in St. Paul, Minn. Cha, a member of the Lao Veterans of America, found out about the law at the group’s local office. He became a citizen on June 27, 25 years after coming to this country; his wife became a citizen on July 18.
“I couldn’t take the test in English,” said Cha, who works as a janitor. “I don’t have time to learn English.”
The citizenship test was translated into Hmong for him.
“It feels very good,” said Cha, 54. “I feel happy and very good — more than before I was an American citizen.”
Reps. George Radanovich, R-Calif., and Betty McCollum, D-Minn., plan to introduce legislation next week extending the law for another 18 months. Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., also plans to seek to attach a similar extension to an appropriations bill, as early as next week.
Former President Clinton signed the original legislation into law in May 2000, but the INS didn’t implement it until August. Philip Smith, lobbyist for the Lao Veterans of America, said even after that, some regional INS offices didn’t know about the law and turned people away who were seeking to take the test with a translator.
“I would lay a significant amount of blame on the INS regional offices where the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing,” he said, adding that the problems still continue.
INS spokeswoman Elaine Comis said the 2 1/2 month-turnaround was actually pretty good, and that the agency did not know of any problems involving field offices turning people away. She said the participation rate is low because most of those eligible are applying for citizenship under the normal procedures. But she conceded that the agency didn’t have any hard numbers to document that.
Smith called her argument “utterly absurd.” He said most of the estimated 42,000 Hmong who are eligible for the law would take advantage of it if the INS had a user-friendly system.
Bo Thao, executive director of Hmong National Development, a Washington-based umbrella group, said local communities are struggling with a lack of interpreters to teach classes. Another problem, she said, is that some veterans are unaware of the law or are misinformed about it.
“Some people have been misled — they think it’s an automatic citizenship,” she said.
Thao said her group is considering public service announcements on radio stations and leaflets in Hmong to help educate people about the law.
Some Hmong American communities are big enough to provide classes and translators for aspiring citizens. The Milwaukee and St. Paul branches of Lao Family Community, for example, both offer day and night day classes in Hmong. The classes meet for a couple of months before a person takes the test.
In some rural areas, those services are not as easy to come by. Smith said that Hmong American groups have to scramble to find translators to help with the citizenship process.
Smith’s group is launching “Operation New American,” aimed both at signing up more people for citizenship and lobbying for an extension of the law. That will include a letter-writing campaign to members of Congress as well as Capitol Hill rallies, he said. |
