A morning well spent with Speaker Pelosi

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Bright and early Saturday morning (8AM to be precise), I arrived at the Bill Graham Civic Center in San Francisco to help some immigrants become Americans. It wasn't particularly glamorous work, it was basically helping people fill out forms. And while I emerged into the warm San Francisco afternoon tired, hungry, and a bit hoarse, I also knew that it was a richly rewarding experience.

Speaker Pelosi, along with other Democratic Representatives from across the nation, organized these citizen workshops to help people apply for citizenship before the fees increase from about $400 per application to $675 per application. Everybody whom I worked with was nice and very appreciative. While most probably could have done the form themselves, the combination of form assistance, immigration attorneys and a general one-stop application shop made it much easier for people to get motivated to apply. 

Now, of course, the next step is to make sure we register these new citizens  to vote when they complete the naturalization process.