USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas Promotes Immigrant Integration in California
(As published in The Blog at Homeland Security)
Yesterday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas spoke at a University of Southern California conference in Los Angeles entitled "Which Way America? Reframing, Regrouping, and Realigning for Immigrant Integration." Stressing the fundamental values of our nation, Mayorkas emphasized the important contributions immigrants have made to this country.
Mayorkas reminded us of courageous individuals like Gerda Weissmann Klein –a humanitarian, author, human rights activist, Holocaust survivor, and a proud naturalized citizen. Mrs. Weissmann-Klein was a recipient of the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and was also honored by USCIS as an Outstanding American by Choice – an honor bestowed upon naturalized U.S. citizens who have demonstrated exemplary commitment to this country.
As the federal agency that administers naturalization and ensures the integrity and efficiency of the citizenship process, USCIS is proud to have provided tens of thousands of people nationwide with information on eligibility, testing, and citizenship rights and responsibilities. Last year, USCIS’s Citizenship and Integration Grant Program provided nearly $8.1 million to 78 community organizations in 27 states to support citizenship education programs and naturalization application services for lawful permanent residents.
And earlier this year, Mayorkas and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa partnered to debut a first-of-its-kind Immigrant Integration pilot program aimed at strengthening citizenship efforts in L.A., a city that is home to an estimated 2.3 million lawful permanent residents eligible for citizenship. Through proactive citizenship awareness, education, and outreach activities, Mayorkas hopes to replicate this first-of-its-kind collaborative effort in other cities across the country.
"As a nation grounded in the fundamental value that all people are created equal, our unifying promise of citizenship has allowed people of all backgrounds, whether native or foreign-born, to have an equal stake in the future of this nation, "said Mayorkas. "Citizenship solidifies the inclusive vision of what America stands for: a nation united by the common ideals of freedom, equality, and democracy."
Labels: Director's Posts
posted by USCIS Blog Team @ 4:09 PM
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9 Comments:
It is essential for our communities to come together in issues of immigration instead of using immigration as a vehicle for discord. Thanks for your efforts in that regard.
Mister President Obama:
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congress of USA:
What sense does it make that some immigrants cannot work legally due to some non-sense with the “work permit” or “permanent residency card”? Considering the following: The difficult economic situation in USA/ lack of jobs in USA/ the majority of immigrant who came to USA in the last five years –specially those who don’t have any kind of resources- haven’t really had the opportunity to do something for the “American dream” / most organizations that are supposed to help with immigration requirements and bureaucracy don’t have so many resources as before, allegedly / some immigrant face really critical situations in USA due to the many barriers and the very diverse and strong prejudices in the American society / that cycle of lack of resources, presence of strong barriers and very diverse prejudices gets worse with the time: not having received the necessary assistance on time, the situation deteriorates and it is more difficult to get help, due to some traits and prejudices in USA / for many immigrants it is very difficult to get some “informal” work or “under the table”, a labor market that works with the characteristics similar to mafias.
My proposal is that you consider this:
To authorize USCIS to issue Permanent Residency Cards or Work Permits valid at least for five years to every individual with legal status (or technically legalize-able status), that arrived to USA in the last seven years and that had been authorized to work at least once in the last seven years.
http://www.tomasdelosreyesburgo.blogspot.com
The date movement for EB3-India (Employment Based) is a joke. This is the April 2005 Visa Bulletin.
http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulle...
EB3I was at 01APR02. So in Six years the date has literally not moved even an inch. Did 1 Million people apply for GC in 2002?
USCIS/DOL have to do something, People are stuck, their lives are stuck. Please do needful.
The system is screwed up beyond imagination.... and EB3I especially is at the mercy of DOL/USCIS. They are causing irreversible impact on thousands of lives who are following the rules.
unfortunate folks like us (who are still waiting) got stuck with the Labor backlog processing I guess the bottom line is people are still reasonably content if they end up getting GC sometime during their lifetime.
People are moving from EB3 to EB2 with falsified documents. The EB2 category is HIGHLY SKILLED group of people are needed in this country. Please clear the backlog ASAP.
It is moving at a very slow speed.
Here's a question rarely considered in all the debates about immigration: How do we come to own a country and say who can live in a particular place?
I am not necessarily saying that we should allow anyone to move here, but where does the right to prevent them from doing so come from? If I just want to invite a friend from another country to come live here, and an employer wants to hire him, how did anyone get the right to say that can't happen? We don;t like to think about questions of freedom like these. It is easier to assume that they have been answered, but they haven't been.
while i applaud your recognition of immigrants have made to nation, like Gerda Klein, nowadays immigrants expect citizen rights without actually going about it the right way. do it the right way and join the rest of your hispanic fellow brother and sisters here in America. you only join their fraternity if your become a citizen if not your just illegal
Why can't a working visa holder(I'm talking about nurses who are on H1-C visa)be given an extension to work or at least the chance to live here permanently;I've been staying and working in US for 3 years,due taxes paid, never ask anything from the govt and didn't commit any crimes. The only thing we ask is extend our stay and work legally or be given a chance to be a permanent resident...my visa will expire on July 31,2011
Why doe the USCIS take so long to process forms? I need my husband with me. It is simply not fair.
I agree that they take too long I have been married 6 months and no word from uscis I need my husband with me we tried to get a tourist visa so he can at least come visit me and our daughter anf the lady from the embassy told me that was my hurry to have him here really???? How cold can you be to say something like that. So now I am leaving the confort of my home and take my daughter out of school to move to the Dominican Republic. So America you can keep my house and my job because we want our family together
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