There is a concerted push to the efforts of Asians living in the US to augment the number of Asians and others applying for the citizenship; a diverse set of groups seeking resolution of more citizenships for their community members, have joined the Asian groups in a fresh initiative launched on April 6.
They are all supporting this veritable drive so that the coveted citizenship becomes a reality in the new future; they have the full-fledged support of all the community leaders particularly Judy Chu, who is a Californian Democrat representing District 27 as a Congressional representative.
The Asian language Legal Intake Project ALLIP is also involved
In her interactions, she enunciated the importance of this much-sought after citizenship of the United States of America as under:
- It provides certain guarantees under the American Constitution to the citizenship holders and their families once they acquire the citizenship,
- They are exposed to a much improved way of life through the said guarantees,
- They get the right to vote, and
- The award of citizenship gives them complete rights to remain protected while also keeping your children protected.
There is a vast difference between the benefits that are provided to the citizens as against those to the immigrants; while they are being charged for social obligations from their salaries under the provisions of the Social Security schemes are the same for all, those with PR status get only about half the benefits in comparison to those who are already US citizens,
The citizens get it all back while the non-citizens do not.
The initiative is a joint effort which has the active support of:
- A number of Not-for-profit groups,
- Various multi-ethnic groups whose members stand to benefit directly from the grant of benefits of citizenship,
- Government agencies,
- The infrastructures and supporters of the elected representative who are committed to the aim, and
- All those who stand to gain if this joint effort is to succeed.
This highly organized program called “Endless possibilities – Citizenship Now” has been launched under an umbrella organization called AAAJ – LA which means Asian Americans’ Advancing Justice – Los Angeles aims to promote increased applications for citizenship of the US.
Workshop for citizenship
On Sunday, April 10 the first event of this initiative took place at the Convention Center at Long Beach; it was free for all participants and important information was provided to the participants.
The members of the communities involved in this massive project are sparing no efforts to educate their members and prepare them for applying and getting citizenship which will be a big boon for them.
They are easily accessible and speak the same language, thus having a better hold on the; each official of the AAAJ – LA is in close contact with the compatriots thus and has a veritable hold on them.
Hence, some of them are even getting as many as 15-20 calls on a daily basis from people who want to submit applications for naturalization; the AAAJ – LA is making all out efforts to ensure that the government accedes to their demand of processing the applications of those who qualify, free of cost.
This program is been viewed as a rare opportunity for the striving Asian communities to achieve, what is for some people, a rare chance to avail naturalization as a US citizen. And, the enthusiasm is unprecedented though it is also inviting the aggressive animosity of the local communities.
They are all waiting to get a right to vote and participate wholeheartedly in their adopted home; the AAAJ, which is an advocacy group providing much-needed services to the local American Asian communities with a range of assisting services particularly where they are not able to pay for the cost of these legal services.
This almost seems to be like a last-ditch struggle since the Presidential elections are in the offing and every candidate wants the precious vote of the voting public; that is why none of them can even thinking of taking a softer stance towards the problems of the Asian Americans and other ethnic groups.
On the contrary, some of the presidential candidates have made some seriously derogatory comments like banning all Muslims and terming the immigrants as murderers and rapists.
Even though, given the option, some candidates would like to support their just causes; the upcoming elections are preventing them to reveal their innermost feelings.
End of part 1…
Author: Umrao Singh
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