Green card holders barrel toward U.S. citizenship
from Latin America, Asia and the Middle East all said they’ve been fielding a rising number of calls and questions about how to become a citizen.
The wait time has doubled for a spot at a monthly naturalization clinic focused on Asian immigrants in Los Angeles. Since Trump’s executive orders on immigration, the number of immigrants inquiring about citizenship has also doubled at a Muslim organization in Southern California and at Latin American-focused groups in Maryland and New York, advocates said.
The growing interest in citizenship follows a surge in naturalization applications last year amid Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign rhetoric and ahead of a December increase in filing fees. Nearly 1 million people applied to naturalize during the 2016 fiscal year, the largest number in nine years, government data shows.
At naturalization ceremonies in Los Angeles last week, many of the 6,000 newly sworn citizens waved flags and shed tears at the culmination of a lengthy journey to become Americans. A ceremony in Chicago a week earlier took an emotional turn when a Syrian immigrant recited the Pledge of Allegiance amid a rancorous court fight over the new president’s travel ban affecting his native country.
For years, immigrant advocates have urged lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders, to naturalize, which would protect them from deportation were they ever convicted of a crime.
Still, millions of eligible immigrants refrain from doing so, citing fear of passing English language and citizenship tests and hundreds of dollars in filing fees.
Most immigrants need to live in the country and have a green card for at least five years before they can file a citizenship application. More than 8 million people were eligible to naturalize in 2013, according to the Department of Homeland Security.