Every year, hundreds of thousands of immigrants become U.S. citizens. It is their right, having filled all the requirements put forth by the U.S. government. That’s when they stop being second-class citizens and are able to hold a federal job, run for office -- except for that of the presidency -- and the icing on the cake is that they get to vote. But this year there is a new motivation for citizenship and for voting.

We got a hint of that motivation during the historic pro-immigrant marches this spring in major cities across the country. “Today we march, tomorrow we vote,” read banners among the crowds. And that is exactly what a coalition of advocates, religious groups and union leaders wants to accomplish.

A voter-registration and citizenship drive is under way, spearheaded by the We Are America Alliance. They call it Democracy Summer, and as in other recent election years, the group plans to increase the number of voter participation -- this time around by 1 million. The underlying mission is to have minority voters and new naturalized citizens vote out the immigrant-bashers.

Among those crowds of undocumented immigrants in cities like Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Denver, Atlanta and Phoenix, there were thousands of U.S. citizens and legal residents who were fed up with immigrant-bashing, angry at congressional attempts to criminalize immigrants and those who come to their aid, and willing to stand up for their rights. Some of them have already gone through the immigration nightmare; others have family members immersed in it now.

And now it seems like they -- and the rest of the country -- are going to have to wait even longer before there is comprehensive immigration reform, since House Republicans are holding hearings about the recently approved Senate bill that opens the door for the legalization of undocumented immigrants and creates a guest-worker program, like President Bush wanted.

Immigration advocates, including some Republican senators, say that the hearings are nothing more than a delay tactic. If the representatives holding the hearings want to know what the American people think, all they have to do is look at the polls, which show support for a bill that would allow immigrants to become citizens and also for strict border control. One such survey conducted by the Manhattan Institute shows that 75 percent of “Republican voters” approve of the Senate bill. Sixty percent would favor a candidate who supports comprehensive reform.

If House Republicans are trying to save their jobs with their anti-immigrant stand, they might want to think twice about it. There are more than a dozen swing states with anywhere from 50,000 to 900,000 legal residents eligible to apply for citizenship -- enough to influence state and congressional elections. The voter pool is increasing by leaps and bounds, and while there is no telling how they will vote, there’s no doubt that many of the new voters have immigration on their mind.

In 2005, more than 600,000 citizenship applications were approved, and the number is expected to increase to 685,000 this year. If the citizenship drive is successful, those numbers could be dramatically higher. There are an estimated 8 million legal residents in the country who qualify for citizenship. They must be 18 years of age or older and have lived in the country legally for five years. They might not become citizens in time to vote by Nov. 6, but there’s always 2008. In addition to that, it is believed that as many as 3 million U.S.-born children of immigrants will be of voting age by the next presidential election.