A voter registration campaign underway by the New York Immigration Coalition saw over 1,400 new American immigrants sign up to vote over the past two weeks.

The announcement came during a National Voter Registration Day event on Tuesday in New York to coincide with similar events in immigrant-heavy districts in other states.

Campaign members representing Caribbean, Asian, Arab and Latino communities had a united message that immigrants will vote for representatives who support issues critical to immigrant communities -- executive action on administrative relief, immigration reform, and the New York State DREAM Act.

"In the lead-up to the elections this November, our communities have experienced some major disappointments -- from Congress taking no action on immigration reform to the President delaying administrative action," said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.

Choi added, "We are here ... to emphasize that just like in elections past, the immigrant vote will make a huge difference in November's elections. With our partners in the Immigrants Vote! Campaign, we look forward to registering thousands of new American voters to show our collective power and to remind our leaders that immigrant issues must remain a priority in their political agendas."

Since these voter registration drives began in 1998, NYIC has registered 321,000 new American immigrants to vote.

Elizabeth OuYang, President of OCA-Asian American Advocates, said people should never forget there was once a time when many immigrnats could not become citizens and people lost their lives fighting for the right to vote.

"Now more than ever, members of our community must register to vote and show our power through the ballot box. The demands of our time, require full civic participation of those most directly impacted by the decisions of our electoral class," said Angela Fernandez, executive director of Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights.

In a related story, three cities are launching citizenship programs to offer legal residents a path to citizenship.

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.

READ MORE: New York, Los Angeles & Chicago Create Joint Program for Citizenship.

The New York Immigration Coalition is an umbrella policy and advocacy organization for nearly 200 groups in New York State that work with immigrants and refugees, hoping to achieve a fairer and more just society.