Whether they want to vote for America's next president – or are eager to feel generally more enfranchised – immigrants in California's Central Valley became U.S. citizens at an explosive rate in 2007, according to an analysis of new naturalization statistics.
The Valley's cities are far smaller than San Diego or Los Angeles, which also experienced surges in the thousands of people becoming citizens in 2007. The Los Angeles area alone saw 78,454 new citizens sworn in last year – a 19 percent increase over the year before.
But the rate of growth in naturalizations in the Central Valley in just one year is startling for the inland region – and it helped fuel a 19 percent jump in new citizens throughout California last year.
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