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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

IL Report: Priced Out of America

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Monday, September 15, 2008   

Springfield, IL – Prices for obtaining U.S. citizenship have gone up by more than 600 percent in ten years, and there are calls for reforms in Illinois to bring those prices back down to earth.

Wednesday is Citizenship Day, and a report that tracks citizenship fees show the price has risen to almost $700, compared to $95 a decade ago.

Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, says they've partnered with the state to offer loans as a temporary solution, but they're looking for a national reassessment of the fees next year.

"American citizenship is something we want as many immigrants as possible to participate in, to assume the rights and the responsibilities of being in this nation."

Hoyt says citizenship does need to be something immigrants work toward, but application fees of almost $700 set up a class system for citizenship.

"American citizenship has been turned into a privilege limited to the wealthy. This is something which cuts at the very foundations of what it means to be American."

Hoyt says since the latest fee hike went into effect, the number of legal immigrants applying for citizenship has fallen by 60 percent, which he says is a sign that the price is out of reach for many. Price increases are explained as a reflection of the expenses in handling and approving applications.

To view the full report online, visit www.icirr.org.




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