INS Commissioner Doris Meissner (center), pictured above with Attorney Carl Shusterman (left) and a Congressional staffer (right), arrived in Los Angeles to announce a major national initiative to address the unprecedented wave of increases in applications for naturalization.

Commissioner Meissner declared that the Citizenship USA program would start in Los Angeles and would be followed by similar efforts in Miami, New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The program aims to more than double the number of immigrants naturalized by increasing INS staff, computerizing the process and forming partnerships with private community organizations and educational institutions.

Commissioner Meissner commended the work of INS's Naturalization Advisory Committee in helping to lay the groundwork for Citizenship USA. Attorney Shusterman, who represents the American Immigration Lawyers Association on the Committee, declared that "this could be the biggest improvement in the processing of naturalization applications since I worked for the Citizenship Branch of INS over 15 years ago."

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