Not satisfied enough with nearly doubling naturalization fees and putting U.S. citizenship out of reach for many immigrants, the Trump administration has set its focus on the citizenship test itself, CNN reports. With just weeks left until the end of impeached president Donald Trump’s administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials are reportedly finalizing changes lengthening the test, but also making it much harder to pass.
CNN reported the test has been changed before, most recently in 2009. What’s outrageous now is officials clearly just want to set up roadblocks. “This administration seems locked into an endless cycle of making the process more difficult,” American Immigration Council policy counsel Aaron Reichlin-Melnick told CNN, “and inevitably discouraging more and more people from seeking citizenship and legal immigration benefits.”
CNN reports the draft memo seeks to double the number of civics questions applicants are asked, from 10 to 20 out of a possible 100. That means a passing score would tick up from six correct answers to 12. “The memo also says USCIS officers will ask all 20 questions, rather than stopping when an applicant reaches the passing score,” the report continued, along with asking more questions about U.S. history, civics, “more topics touching on specific amendments to the Constitution,” as well as “the ‘rationale for the legislative branch structure.’”
I mean, the fucking goal posts we create for immigrants who want to become American citizens when the American president makes a daily mockery of American institutions, including the “legislative branch structure” to which he’s taken a sledgehammer (along with the rest of the government). Consider his stupid, useless, racist border wall.
Immigrants are supposed to know that Congress is one part of the federal government and that its two chambers make and pass laws, but apparently that’s not necessary for the president to have to acknowledge or respect. Unable to get the billions upon billions he wanted for his wall that he claimed Mexico was supposed to pay for (a five-year-old lie he was still repeating as recently as last month), he just stole it. Just took it. I’m sure that won’t be in the proposed citizenship test.
Applicants are also asked about “rule of law,” something else Trump and his officials consider entirely optional. I mean, the acting director of USCIS—you know, the agency administering this test—was actually unlawfully serving in his job! The fact that anti-immigrant loudmouth Ken Cuccinelli has unlawfully served in the Trump administration is actually the finding of several entities, including a federal judge in March and the Government Accountability Office in in August. As an apparent go-around, Cuccinelli’s title at USCIS is now “Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director.” That’ll do it, I guess.
"Updating, maintaining, and improving a test that is current and relevant is our responsibility as an agency in order to help potential new citizens fully understand the meaning of U.S. citizenship and the values that unite all Americans," Cuccinelli actually had the gall to say out loud last year, CNN reported. Those are the rules for you. When it comes to him, he refuses to resign and we’ll likely be stuck with him until President-elect Joe Biden gets sworn in next year. Yay.
CNN reported, “[i]t's unclear when the agency will roll out the changes to the exam. USCIS declined to comment on the planned revisions.” But what’s important to consider is that named in Joe Biden’s transition plan is Ur Jaddou, a former USCIS chief counsel who has shined a light on the agency’s radicalization under Trump and Cuccinelli. Jaddou is now being “viewed as a frontrunner for USCIS director,” The Washington Post’s Nick Miroff tweeted.
