Attracting thousands of new voters before the elections could be the motive behind the efforts to clear the backlog of naturalization applications.
“They don’t admit that,” Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told Fox News Digital when asked if voter gains might be behind naturalizing more U.S. citizens. “They’ll describe it as if naturalization is the ultimate goal and we want people to become Americans … but it’s always a political tactic to get more citizens, assuming they’re going to vote for you.”
Ries’ comments follow a New York Times report last week that revealed that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (USIS) is processing naturalization applications at a speed not seen in about a decade. During the first nine months of the current fiscal year, it took an average of 4.9 months to process applications.
The pace is far faster than it was three years ago, when it took about 11.5 months for an applicant to receive U.S. citizenship. Overall, the current pace of new naturalizations has not been seen since 2013 and 2014, the New York Times reported.
REPORT: Immigrants gain citizenship at a rapid pace as elections approach
Since President Biden took office, 3.3 million immigrants have been naturalized. (Susan Walsh/Associated Press)
So far, 3.3 million immigrants have been naturalized since President Biden took office, the report says. It also notes that Biden has shortened the length of the application to 14 pages instead of the previous 20 pages and made it easier for low-income applicants to qualify for a reduction in the application fee of $710.
The report also noted that the increasing naturalization rate could play a role in this year’s election, as thousands of new potential voters receive citizenship each week.
“Increasing the efficiency of naturalization not only clears backlogs; it potentially changes the electoral system, just months before a crucial election,” Xiao Wang, chief executive of Boundless, a company that provides assistance to immigrants seeking help with their naturalization process, told the New York Times. “Every application for citizenship could be a vote that decides seats in the Senate or even the presidency.”
According to Ries, these additional voices are likely part of the motivation behind the new processing speeds.
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“This government has shown that they are cutting corners at every turn,” Ries said. “Wherever there is a vetting issue, they don’t care very much about thorough vetting. So they are cutting corners at every turn and speeding up the process to give the foreigner an immigration advantage. And ultimately, that inevitably means that they are giving that advantage to people who shouldn’t be getting it.”
Ries also argued that there is no precedent in this situation, pointing to a 1996 initiative that would have accelerated the naturalization of American citizens and raised questions about the Clinton administration’s motivations for accelerating the pace.
According to a May 1997 New York Times report, the Clinton administration attempted to strip nearly 5,000 immigrants of their U.S. citizenship after an Immigration and Naturalization Service initiative to speed up the processing of applications revealed that they had been wrongfully naturalized.
The Clinton administration sought to revoke the U.S. citizenship of nearly 5,000 immigrants after an Immigration and Naturalization Service initiative to speed up the processing of applications revealed that they had been wrongfully naturalized. (George Bridges/AFP via Getty Images)
The White House was heavily involved in the initiative, called Citizenship USA, but was later criticized for pushing the pace that would allow thousands of criminal immigrants to become citizens, and for attempting to boost the number of votes cast by thousands of voters in the run-up to the 1996 election.
A U.S. Department of Justice report later acknowledged the initiative’s shortcomings, but argued that White House involvement “did not result in the INS lowering standards or changing its procedures to naturalize more applicants in time for the 1996 election in the hope that they would, as alleged, vote for the Democratic Party.”
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Still, it is important to examine the applications carefully, argued Ries, pointing out that this is the last opportunity for authorities to check a migrant’s origins before granting them a benefit that is rarely revoked.
“You can revoke someone’s citizenship retroactively, but that rarely happens and is not an easy matter,” Ries said.
A video featuring President Joe Biden’s welcoming message to new immigrants is shown at a naturalization ceremony at Grand Teton National Park on August 4, 2023 in Moose, Wyoming. (Natalie Behring/Getty Images)
Ries also raised concerns that USCIS has “watered down” the citizenship and English proficiency exams that applicants must pass to obtain U.S. citizenship. Ries argued that the exam portion of the process has become a “joke” and has resulted in citizens having difficulty integrating into American society.
However, when asked by Fox News Digital, a USCIS spokesperson argued that the increased naturalization rate was merely due to “operational improvements in recent years that have reduced both the number of pending cases and the overall processing time that the agency inherited from the previous administration.”
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“USCIS staff has addressed processing issues and made changes to underlying procedures to achieve greater efficiency while maintaining the integrity and security of the immigration system. In addition, the agency continues to evaluate all regulatory, policy and procedural options to improve processing times and reduce the number of pending cases,” the spokesperson added.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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