AN DIEGO - Expanding on a proposal to improve the Immigration and Naturalization Service, George W. Bush pledged $500 million in new spending yesterday to cut the time needed to process an immigration application to an average of six months.
Addressing the annual convention of the National Council of La Raza, Bush said the process now takes three to five years. Late last year, the INS announced that average times had been reduced from two years to 12 months, and were headed lower.
''We will bring to the INS a new standard of service and a culture of respect,'' Bush, who is assured of the Republican nomination for the presidency, told about 2,500 members of the Hispanic advocacy group.
The new spending, to be doled out over five years, is the latest part of an INS overhaul plan that Bush's campaign believes will resonate with Latino voters.
''We've got an INS that is too bureaucratic, too stuck in the past,'' he said.
In Washington, Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, is prime sponsor of a bill aimed at reducing the backlog of naturalization and visa applications.
''I would hope Governor Bush would endorse this bill and urge prompt passage of this legislation by Congress,'' said Feinstein, who is pushing for $127 million for the agency to hire staff and boost computer operations without increasing application fees.
Last week, Bush announced to the League of United Latin American Citizens conference in Washington that he wants to split the INS into two agencies: one for legitimate immigrants and one for border enforcement.
The Texas governor also proposed allowing relatives of permanent residents to visit the United States while their own immigration papers are being processed.
Cecilia Munoz, a La Raza immigration expert, said that Bush's proposals sounded good, but that she needed the details to determine whether Hispanics would benefit.
She noted that Hispanic advocates largely oppose a similar plan for the INS, sponsored by Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, on the grounds that it would weaken accountability on the border side while providing less attention to the service side.
