Push by INS Moves Immigrants Toward Their Biggest Test

With an hour to go before the biggest test of their lives, Bertha and Mariana Valero decided on one final, rapid-fire quiz.

“What is the judicial branch of government?” one sister asked. “The Supreme Court,” the other answered. “What is the capital of your state?” the first sister asked. “Sacramento,” the other shot back.

“What is the supreme law of the land?” came the question. “The U. S. Constitution,” came the response.

After nearly five months of preparation, the two Mexican immigrants knew their stuff cold. Now all they had to do was avoid freezing up in front of the immigration officials waiting in the next room.

“It makes you kind of nervous,” said Bertha Valero, 27, the older of the two sisters from Oxnard. “But we want to become citizens, there is no other way. We want to have the right to vote, the right to have a say in the laws of our country.”

The Valero sisters were among 90 Ventura County residents who took advantage Friday of a new push by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to provide citizenship exams closer to home.

Driven in large part by what they perceive as a deepening anti-immigrant mood, legal immigrants across the county have been signing up to become U. S. citizens in record numbers.

From Thousand Oaks to Port Hueneme, a steady stream of immigrants from eight countries arrived at the Oxnard office of El Concilio del Condado de Ventura on Friday to complete the last step before they can be sworn in as citizens.

“I want to be able to vote,” said Carlos Vega, a 28-year-old Moorpark resident trying to steady his nerves before taking the citizenship exam. “It’s a good thing for the Mexican people living in this country to do this, so that we’re just not standing around doing nothing like a bunch of trees.”

Flavio Rangel, a 26-year-old Thousand Oaks resident, said he is becoming a citizen to accelerate the process of gaining citizenship for family members.

“I also want to be able to vote to help Hispanics in this country,” said Rangel, a native of Michoacan, Mexico, who has lived in the United States for more than a decade. “And hopefully citizenship will help me get a better job.”

Both Vega and Rangel passed the test.

The march toward citizenship was sparked by an El Concilio campaign.

Earlier this year, the Oxnard-based Latino advocacy group helped hundreds of legal immigrants apply for citizenship and worked with the INS to ensure that the exams would be given in Ventura County.

During the first local exam last month, all but nine of the 80 people who took the test passed. Friday, 76 people passed the test, while 14 will have to take it again.

Those who passed were told on the spot and given appointments for a July 13 swearing-in ceremony in Los Angeles.

To apply for citizenship, immigrants must have five years of permanent residency, be at least 18 years old and have a basic knowledge of American history and government. They must also have conversational English skills.

The roaming citizenship exams are part of a new push by the INS to make it easier for applicants to take the tests.

“We’re trying to make it more comfortable for them,” said Sylvia Wilson, who supervises the crew of immigration officers who go from city to city giving the exams.

“You get people into the office and they get so tense you can’t really interview them,” Wilson added. “I think when people are more relaxed, you get more people passing.”

Sylvia Venegas, 31, of Oxnard was among those who passed the exam.

The Mexican native said she has been a legal resident since 1989 and applied for citizenship just as soon as she could.

“I feel different now,” she said afterward, wearing a blue badge proclaiming that she had passed the test. “I feel more free.”

Although Bertha and Mariana Valero were called about the same time to take the test, Bertha finished first and waited for her sister. When Mariana finally emerged, she did not know whether she had passed.

Finally, unable to stand the suspense, Bertha Valero inquired.

“She wants to know if she passed her test,” she asked Wilson.

“Of course you did,” Wilson said, cracking a wide smile. “Congratulations.”

The sisters exchanged a high-five. But unlike Venegas, they said they felt no different.

“We’re going to go pick up our kids and do the laundry,” Bertha Valero said.