Last year, Utah’s backlog of legal immigrants who are awaiting approval of U.S. citizenship applications grew faster than in any other state.
So Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski and Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams joined a group of 45 mayors and county executives nationally to ask federal officials Monday to “take aggressive steps to reduce the waiting time” — which now takes up to 20 months.
“This alarming backlog means that many in our community who started the naturalization process many months ago hoping to vote in the midterm elections will not be able to do so,” said Mayra Cedano, civic engagement program manager for Comunidades Unidas (Communities United).