France is speeding up a process that usually takes five years and expediting the citizenship applications of hundreds of immigrant front-line workers from the nation’s fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic, CBS News reports. Of the nearly 2,900 immigrants to have applied in the past several months, more than 70 are now citizens, and nearly 700 are nearing the finish line.
Officials announced in September they would be speeding up applications in recognition of the vital roles immigrants have played as essential workers. "They actively participated in the national effort, with dedication and courage," Junior Minister for Citizenship Marlene Schiappa said at the time according to the report. Much like the U.S., the pandemic has caused delays in the processing of applications for French citizenship. But what’s different is how the two nations appear to have responded to it.
“In September, as France was bracing for a second wave of the pandemic, the government requested regional officials ‘facilitate’ and ‘accelerate’ the naturalization process for foreign workers who actively participated in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” CBS News reported. But here in the U.S., the immigration agency that processes naturalization paperwork refused to conduct virtual ceremonies for immigrants who were on the cusp of citizenship but couldn’t finish the process due to the cancellation of in-person oath ceremonies.
More than 2,000 immigrants were then forced to file a class-action lawsuit against U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which has been heavily politicized under the outgoing administration. In July—just weeks before France said it would speed up its process for its people—the Philadelphia field office of USCIS backed down and “opted to quickly naturalize all of them,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported at the time. So it had the ability all that time to naturalize them, as advocates had insisted. They just didn’t want to do it.
“To be clear, the law is not as stringent as USCIS suggests and there is legal room for USCIS to make appropriate accommodations for remote oath ceremonies,” Ur Jaddou, director of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Watch and former USCIS chief counsel, said in a statement received by Daily Kos at the time. “But it takes will and interest to do so.”
According to a recent report from the Center for American Progress (CAP), the U.S. government considers as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants “essential workers” amid the pandemic, with some carrying official letters given to them by their employers. But the reality is that they’ve always been essential workers, and their legalization would be both vital to their lives and an integral part of the nation’s recovery, CAP said in the report.
“As the incoming Biden administration and Congress tackle the coronavirus response and economic recovery, they cannot ignore the many ways undocumented workers keep the country running or what they mean to their families and communities,” CAP said. “In designing legislative and administrative programs to deliver relief to all Americans and help the country get back on the path to prosperity, providing legal status to undocumented immigrants must be considered a key tool to ensure the recovery is sufficiently robust and resilient, equitable and inclusive.”
France is showing it’s possible if, in the words of Jaddou earlier this year, there’s “will and interest to do so.” CBS News reports that in a statement this week, Schiappa said that "[h]ealth care workers, cleaning professionals, childcare workers and store clerks ... They have proved their commitment to the nation. It is now up to the Republic to take a step toward them.”