Immigrant groups launching countrywide push to sign up voters, By By Antonio Olivo and Deborah Horan (Chicago Tribune

In a sustained push to win greater influence during the next presidential administration, immigrant groups across the country are launching a major door-knocking campaign to register hundreds of thousands of new voters.

The local effort is scheduled to begin Saturday at Foreman High School on the West Side, where organizers also will help immigrants fill out U.S. citizenship applications, while volunteers from 14 states kick off a six-day "boot camp" in Chicago geared toward getting out the vote in the fall.

That will coalesce with the work of more than 300 unions, churches and grass-roots organizations that plan to register new voters over the next several months, under a national Campaign for Community Values advocating Immigration reform, better health care and workers' rights, organizers said.

With voter turnout at record levels, a strong immigrant showing could help re-energize federal discussions about legalization, school funding, neighborhood safety and other issues, said Juan Salgado, president of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which is helping coordinate the effort.

"The level of participation is going to be important to determine what gets done and when," Salgado said. Advocates are pushing federal Immigration officials to clear a backlog of some 900,000 U.S. citizenship applications, fearing they may not be processed in time for those immigrants to vote in November. Prompted by the Immigration debate and an impending increase in application fees that has since been implemented, a record 3 million citizenship applications were filed last year.

Since October, nearly 1,900 lawsuits have been filed on behalf of immigrants whose applications have been held up, according to federal statistics.

Esperanza Vargas, 71, is worried her application won't go through in time for her to vote. The Little Village resident who arrived from Mexico 49 years ago said she was inspired to become a citizen and vote by the Immigration marches in Chicago.

"I saw so many undocumented people not allowed to work who have families to feed," Vargas said.

A coalition of unions, immigrant advocacy groups and other organizations called the We Are America Alliance has registered about 120,000 new voters since February, most of them immigrants, said Marissa Graciosa, a spokeswoman.

In 2004, 52.1 percent of all eligible Latino immigrants cast a ballot, compared with 49.6 percent during the 2000 election, a report this year by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials showed. For non-Latino immigrants, the turnout increased to 54.3 percent in 2004 from 51 percent four years earlier.

At Foreman High on Saturday, Venezuelan immigrants Maria Martinez and her father, Ernesto, plan to encourage others to make their voices heard. After she turns 18 in October, Maria Martinez, who became a U.S. citizen this year, will be eligible to vote. Ernesto Martinez, 45, became a citizen in 2005 after nine years in the country.

During the primary elections in their Northwest Side apartment, they found themselves arguing policy in front of the TV, bonding in the process. "I love this election!" Maria Martinez said. "The fact that all my friends are into this has kept me so energized."

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