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Elderly, Disabled Refugees Cite Hardship
Ann M. Simmons, Los Angeles Times
September 19, 2005
Elderly and disabled immigrants are suffering hardships because of tighter restrictions on citizenship applications by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to some local agencies that aid immigrants.
Applications for citizenship are being delayed, they say, by procedural changes that include the halting of an outreach program, the adding of more background checks and increased rejection of medical certificates that allow some applicants to avoid interviews in English and the citizenship exam.
The delays, they say, have put disabled and elderly refugee applicants at risk of losing some government benefits, because in order to be eligible for those benefits, they have to meet a deadline to become citizens.
"All this is causing great hardship for our clients," said Ashraf Habibi, director of Orange County Social and Immigration Services, an Irvine-based agency that assists elderly and disabled immigrants, many of them refugees, with citizenship applications.
Officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services acknowledge giving greater scrutiny to applications, including requests for exemptions from having interviews in English and from taking the required civics test.
"We started to see more and more requests for disability waivers," said Marie Therese Sebrechts, an agency spokeswoman.
"It was noticeable enough that our adjudicators decided it was necessary to take a closer look, to take more time to look at the evidence given to them before making a decision," she said.
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