WASHINGTON (By Mike Madden, Arizona Republic) February 23, 2007 — More immigrants applied to become U.S. citizens last year than in any year since 1999, thanks largely to the national debate over border security and illegal immigration.

Government officials, advocates for immigrants and demographers said the increased applications mirrored a spike about a decade ago, the last time illegal immigration was so prominent in national politics.

The immigration debate has spurred fears of a backlash against immigrants as well as a concerted effort by community organizations to encourage eligible foreigners to become citizens.

Applications for citizenship increased more than 19 percent over the 2005 fiscal year, with 721,268 immigrants seeking to become naturalized in fiscal 2006, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials. Immigration officials also have proposed higher fees for naturalization and other services, which may be pushing immigrants to apply before costs rise. For the first quarter, citizenship applications are on pace to exceed last year's totals.

During last year's midterm election season, political ads played up the dangers of lax border security, and voters approved state referendums that restricted services for undocumented foreigners.

"You hear so many things on the news, and they're passing so many laws, that I was afraid, I wondered what new law they're going to pass tomorrow," said Jeaneth Romero, 26, a preschool teacher from Queen Creek who became a citizen last March, 12 years after moving to Arizona from Sinaloa, Mexico.

"Maybe tomorrow, they're going to pass a new law that says they're not going to allow any more people here or they're not going to allow me to become a citizen, so I better apply."

Organizers said that impulse swept through many immigrant communities last year, as Congress debated sweeping changes to immigration laws.

"Many of these people, they have been here for years and years," said Reyna Polanco, an organizer with the Arizona Coalition for Migrant Rights, a group based in Phoenix that ran citizenship drives last year. "Some people, they came when they were 2 years old and they never decided to become American. ... With all these anti-immigrant propositions and all the proposals coming, they want to vote."

Polanco's group and others that work with Asian and African immigrants put their out- reach efforts into overdrive last year. Advocates for immigrants were shocked in late 2005 when the House passed a bill that would have made it a felony to live in the United States without legal permission.

And the sometimes ugly tone of the debate over illegal immigration led some immigrants to become citizens after years of living here with "green cards" as permanent legal residents.

"A lot of people felt that they didn't need to take that step to be considered a member of the community - a respectable, acceptable member of the community," said Clarissa Martinez de Castro, director of state and local policy for the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Latino civil rights group. "People are getting shaken in their foundation of that belief."

Government officials haven't published statistics on where last year's new citizens came from. In previous years, most came from Mexico, China, India and the Philippines. State-by-state information on where the new citizens have settled will be available later this year.

Some analysts say the jump in applications could change the national political landscape, just as California's political landscape changed after 1994. That change occurred after a state law restricting services to undocumented immigrants led to an increase in citizenship applications.

"There is also a positive element to this whole dynamic, which is that the way that we can stop the demagogues and the reactionaries from insulting us on a daily basis on television is to become citizens, to register and to vote because that is what matters in a democracy," said Sergio Bendixen, a Democratic pollster based in Miami who studies Latino public opinion.

Other immigration experts doubted any new surge in Latino political action will result. Many new citizens may not register to vote or turn out at the polls, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank that advocates decreased immigration.

He hailed the increased interest in citizenship despite his organization's ideology, saying the immigration system's whole point ought to be to make new Americans.

Indeed, Romero, the teacher from Queen Creek, hasn't yet registered to vote, though she said she plans to. But she already feels more secure in the United States.

"Before there was a lot of stress, making sure I had my resident card with me all the time," she said. "And right now, I don't have to worry. I can just have my driver's license with me, and I'm not so worried anymore."