Good afternoon, Congressmembers. My name is Jennifer Dineen-Ocón and I am the Immigrant Assistance Program Director of the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights (the Coalition). I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss constituent service at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

The Coalition's mission is to achieve full human rights and dignity for immigrants and refugees, regardless of their immigration status. The Coalition has approximately 150 organizational members, all concerned with the issues being discussed here today. The program I manage, runs a multilingual hotline serving immigrants and refugees throughout Northern California. Last year we answered over 7,000 calls on immigration-related matters. Through our active membership base and through the immigrants who call us, we have identified several areas where the INS could improve services to be more accountable to the immigrant community in Northern California.

Before discussing areas for INS improvement, I want to say that our agency has regular contact with the San Francisco INS District Office. We attend INS-CBO Liaison meetings every other month, and appreciate having the time to discuss issues with the INS on a regular basis. Now, in terms of improving constituent service at INS, I will address four areas: 1) INS backlogs; 2) California Service Center; 3) INS fee waiver policy; and 4) public charge.

INS APPLICATION BACKLOGS
Many of you are aware of the huge citizenship backlog that began a few years ago. We have seen some progress in the San Francisco District on the waiting period for citizenship, but we do continue to hear of cases where people are still waiting two or three years. And, though the INS has put more resources into citizenship, this has come at the expense of processing other immigration-related applications, such as those for permanent residence. It can now take three years to get a green card. The waiting times for work permits are also very lengthy. As a result, thousands of people are in limbo. The impact is that people cannot work, cannot travel, cannot petition family members to live here, and cannot obtain other services they require, while they are waiting for their cases to be resolved.

Recommendation: The INS needs to hire the number of staff required to process all immigration applications in an effective, timely manner – ideally six months. President Clinton recently proposed funding to address the INS backlogs, in his Fiscal Year 2001 Budget. The proposal includes $35 million to address the various backlogs at INS, and $93 million for an Investment Account to fund ongoing backlog reduction efforts.

Recommendation 1: At a minimum, Congress should approve this funding. However, we feel even more resources are needed to make the INS into an agency that is truly accountable to the immigrants it serves.

Recommendation 2: The Coalition stresses that in any future efforts to reorganize the INS, Congress should hold constituent service as a top priority within those efforts. Constituents should be able to easily access the information they require, and not be forced to wait excessive amounts of time for their cases to be resolved.

CALIFORNIA SERVICE CENTER
In order to streamline the agency's workload, the INS created regional Service Centers to process various immigration applications. The California Service Center (CSC) has been successful in speeding up parts of the application process, but it has not been very successful in providing customer service to applicants. When something goes wrong with an application sent to the CSC, it is extremely difficult to address the problem. Applicants who need to inquire about the status of their application at the CSC almost never get the information they need. Additionally, there is no efficient way for community-based organizations, such at the Coalition, to inquire on our applicants' behalf. Yet, we know this can be done, because local INS offices have systems in place that allow community-based organizations to inquire about difficult cases.

Recommendation 1: The California Service Center should implement a standard inquiry process for community-based organizations, and devote staff to handling such inquiries, who can be available to representatives of community-based organizations.

Recommendation 2: The CSC should hold periodic meetings in Northern California – possibly in conjunction with already in-place INS-CBO liaison meetings – so the CSC can be more accountable to immigrants in this region. We know CSC representatives already meet periodically with community-based organizations in Southern California.

FEE WAIVER SYSTEM
In efforts to improve constituent service, the INS needs to be better about serving very low-income immigrants who cannot pay the fee for immigration benefit programs. Currently, low-income applicants can request that the application fee be waived. However, there is no definitive INS policy on who would merit a fee waiver, nor is there even a form to fill out, leaving low-income applicants at a loss for how to proceed in applying.

Over the past couple years, the Coalition has been involved in monitoring fee waiver requests. We feel that in a high number of cases, the INS is denying requests for fee waivers, when they should be approved. One example I will highlight is that of a 75-year old woman, married to a 77-year old naturalized man, who relies on food stamps, general assistance, and her husband's public assistance to pay for their monthly expenses. Their combined net monthly income is $37.00. Yet, the woman's application for a fee waiver was denied, despite ample documentation of her economic situation. She was therefore prevented from applying for citizenship, because she could not afford the fee. I have submitted the documents of this case for the record. Poor people should not be excluded from applying for INS programs, and yet they are being excluded.

Recommendation 1: The INS should immediately implement a fee waiver policy, providing information about who would qualify for a waiver.

Recommendation 2: The INS should create a fee waiver application form to be used at all offices, for all INS applications.

PUBLIC CHARGE
Last year the government released a guidance on the definition of "public charge," for purposes of immigration benefit programs. This guidance has been helpful for community-based organizations in advising clients about accessing public benefits and possible immigration-related consequences of doing so. Despite the guidance released last year, there is widespread misinformation in the immigrant community about what constitutes a public charge designation by the INS. We receive a large number of calls on our hotline from people who fear using public benefits, even when they or their family members are qualified to receive those benefits.

Recommendation: The INS should conduct a widespread public education campaign, in conjunction with community-based organizations, to ease fears within the immigrant community of accessing certain public benefits they are legally entitled to receive.

This is the conclusion of my testimony. Thank you for your attention. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Statement of Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren

Statement of Rep. Anna Eshoo

Statement of Jennifer Dineen-Ocon

Statement of Linus Torvalds

Statement of Jim Beall

Statement of Warren Leiden

Statement of Sunil Vatave

Statement of Deborah Kessler

Statement of Sister Marilyn Lacey

Statement of Heidi Wilson

Statement of John Barey

Statement of Jacob and Yetta Bromley

Statement of Debra Jaramillo-Coker

Statement of George Windsor Jones

Statement of Le Kim Ngo