Across the country this week, immigrants lined up to pledge their allegiance to the United States, only to be told by federal officers that their naturalization ceremonies had been cancelled at the last minute. This was not because of wrongdoing on their part. On the contrary, these are law-abiding immigrants who followed the long and costly process to qualify for citizenship.
These people are having their lives upended by President Donald Trump’s crackdown on legal immigration in the wake of an Afghan refugee shooting two members of the National Guard on the eve of Thanksgiving. The president subsequently suspended legal immigration from 19 countries.
The collective punishment played out in bracing scenes: People plucked out of line at Faneuil Hall in Boston and turned away at Union Station in Indianapolis. An immigrant from the Republic of Congo wearing an American flag polo shirt showed up to an office in Louisville with an invitation letter but was denied entry into a waiting room.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it’s going to ensure everyone from those places is “vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.” But these ceremonies are supposed to be a formality for friends and family. They already received approval. Now they’re in limbo, hoping this is just a temporary setback.
These legal immigrants already waited years. Even in the fastest circumstances, the process is messy and unpredictable. Migrants coming over on top-preference work visas, deemed to have “extraordinary ability,” take on average seven years to become citizens based on 2025 processing times. For those from China or India, it’s closer to 10 years. Even if you marry a U.S. citizen, it still takes over five years. Time is by no means the only cost. The online application fee for naturalization is $710, but the financial costs of getting a green card beforehand can add many thousands more dollars.
Immigrants have undergone stringent background checks by the time they are scheduled for a citizenship ceremony. This includes biometric appointments and “name checks” carried out by the FBI to ensure the future citizen has no criminal record and is in not a known threat to public safety. The 19 countries Trump has paused any form of immigration from are Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
The message Trump is sending is that playing by the rules does not pay off. That’s what this conveys not just to these immigrants, but to anyone looking to come to the United States. Following strict immigration rules risks being penalized as much as it does being rewarded.
Trump understandably wants newcomers to love America. There’s nothing quite like going to a naturalization ceremony to see great examples of this. In the last fiscal year, 818,500 immigrants became U.S. citizens. The president undermines his own messaging on legal immigration by rejecting people who are willing to jump through every hoop.
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