More evidence of local politicians being more sensitive to the requirements of their immigrant populations and taking bold actions to support immigrants while the U.S. government delays immigration reform: New York is joining Chicago and Los Angeles to launch a national campaign for citizenship.

The program Cities for Citizenship was announced on Wednesday in New York and is a collaboration between Mayor Bill de Blasio, Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Los Angeles' Mayor Eric Garcetti, backed by funding from Citigroup.

"I'm proud to stand today with my fellow mayors Rahm Emanuel and Eric Garcetti as we launch the national Cities for Citizenship initiative," de Blasio said. "From increased economic activity to larger voting and tax bases, the advantages of citizenship will not only expand opportunity to our immigrant families, but to all New Yorkers and residents nationwide."

The program will assist legal permanent residents in navigating the process of becoming citizens by helping immigrants through counseling, legal assistance and microloans.

In Los Angeles, Garcetti created civic education workshops to promote citizenship that provide education materials in public libraries throughout the city's 72 libraries. Since the program began, 12,000 immigrants have participated in workshops.

In New York, de Blasio, through the NYCitizenship program, has provided free, high-quality legal services to New Yorkers who wish to naturalize. They've offered workshops to more than 7,600 New Yorkers and helped more than 1,800 New Yorkers complete naturalization applications since 2012. On the strength of the program, it is being expanded in city agencies and libraries to reach more eligible New Yorkers.

In Chicago over the past six years, the New Americans Initiative has helped 90,000 immigrants and their children become U.S. citizens.

Studies have found that immigrants who are eligible to naturalize fail to do so because of high costs, lack of English proficiency or not being conversant with the application process.

A Pew Hispanic Center survey of Latino immigrants found that 26 percent didn't nauturalize because of personal barriers. Another 18 percent didn't because of administrative barriers, and overall the complaint was over the high costs of naturalizing.

Citizenship costs have risen from $225 in 2000 to $680 in 2008, while renewing a green card for 10 years costs $450. There are efforts underway to lower the costs of naturalizing at the federal level.

The Center for Popular Democracy and the National Partnership for New Americans, two nonprofit groups, and the University of Southern California issued a report, "Citizenship -- A Wise Investment for Cities," to suport the Cities for Citizenship campaign, which shows that naturalized immigrants increase national earnings by 8 to 11 percent, and those earnings can have a multiplier effect on the economy.

The Pew Hispanic Center survey found there are 12.4 green card holders in the U.S. In a given year, 1.1 million lawful permanent residents become eligible for citizenship because they've been in the country for five years, but only 700,000 naturalize in any given year. Those remaining permanent residents join a pool of an estimated 8 million people who are eligible for citizenship but are not applying.

"Immigrants are the backbone of our economy," Garcetti told the Wall Street Journal. "It's time we encouraged their successful integration into our social and political tapestry to continue boosting our economy and not stand in the way of it."

Citizenship provides full civil and political rights, protects against deportation, eases travel abroad and provides full access to government jobs and assistance.

According to the report, the increase in earnings to immigrants who naturalize is estimated to add between $1.8 and $4.1 billion over 10 years to New York's economy; between $1.6 billion and $2.8 billion in Los Angeles; and between $1 billion and $1.6 billion in Chicago.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the global director of community development at Citigroup said statistics show poverty levels are much higher among foreign-born residents than those who have become citizens.

The Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs in New York City will be issuing a report on the economic impact of citizenship programs to combat poverty hoping mayors across the country will adopt the naturalizing initiative.