Ya Es Hora

Although applications were still being processed at the end of 2007, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services confirmed receiving more than twice the number of citizenship applications filed in 2006. Ya Es Hora (It’s Time), an outstanding public service campaign from Univision Communications in collaboration with the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), impreMedia and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), clearly contributed to that increase. With a half-hour kick-off special, many more spots on both radio and television and NALEO’s toll free hotline, the project encouraged and educated legal immigrants to apply for citizenship, register to vote and vote in national elections. The campaign is a model of how major organizations can reach into communities at the grassroots level and achieve significant results. The expectation is that nearly nine and a half million Hispanics will vote in the 2008 presidential elections. For contributing to the growth and development of true citizenship, a Peabody Award goes to Univision’s Ya Es Hora.