At the same time, Immigration and Naturalization Service officials reported no noticeable increase in marriages between U.S. citizens and aliens, bucking the rush for marriages of convenience that is showing up in mainland cities with high numbers of immigrants.
Aliens in the United States have been double-whammied in the past year.
Welfare reform has tightened or cut eligibility for them to receive benefits, and immigration laws have made it easier for the government to deport them.
Donald Radcliffe, Immigration district chief in Honolulu, said last year the Honolulu office received an average 557 applications for citizenship every month. That number reached 626 in February and is expected to top 700 in March.
In January and February, legal aliens were notified that they might lose government assistance, Radcliffe said. "That was what sparked everybody to become naturalized so they wouldn't lose assistance," Radcliffe said.
That's where Sisters Offering Support came in, and now Sheila, not her real name, 21, of the North Shore, works as an office worker because she learned how to type 50 words a minute going to school for free thanks to the group."SOS is a great help," she said. "Help yourself first, and SOS will help with the rest."
Sisters Offering Support, which says it has helped nine individuals out of prostitution in its first year, lost its lease today and closed a major part of its operation.
That means the drop-in center is closed until the group can find donated space.
"We will still be doing street outreach, and the SOS crisis line is still in operation," said Kelly Hill, president and founder.
"The Fernhurst YWCA donated the office space to us for one year, and that year is up," she said. "We haven't received any funds to cover operating costs yet. But we are planning our first annual fund-raiser for August, so we should have funds after that."
The couple had argued around 10 last night at their Koauka Loop apartment. She left, but returned around 4 a.m. by climbing to their fourth-floor apartment lanai, police said. She allegedly picked up a steak knife and stabbed the man in the abdomen and left shoulder. The husband, 28, is in good condition at Tripler Hospital.
Charges are being sought against a 28-year-old man arrested at 5:10 p.m. yesterday behind 1530 Makaloa St.
An officer spotted him in the back seat of a car with a crack pipe and asked him for identification. When the man pulled out his wallet to remove his ID, a Chevron gas card belonging to Easter Seal fell out, police said.
Last Friday, police arrested a 41-year-old parolee who rented the 1420 Alapai St. apartment where property taken in the March 2 break-in was recovered.
Police were led to the apartment after Shane Thomas, 29, was arrested March 21 in Waipahu during a traffic stop. Officers found Easter Seal business checks in the back seat of the car he was driving and in a waist pack. He was charged with theft and drug violations. Martin B. Wall Jr., 22, arrested at the apartment, was charged with theft and burglary.
The victim said the man and a second person threatened him with a large piece of wood. He gave them his wallet and they drove away in a pickup truck.
Police found the truck and arrested a 32-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman, both of Kailua-Kona. Another man escaped.
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