A company that assists immigrants with their citizenship paperwork said that it estimates that over 125,000 people had finished that process and were inches from the finish line when U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services shut down in-person services due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. “The last step in the naturalization process, the oath ceremony, suddenly slipped out of reach,” Miami Herald reported. While USCIS is scheduled to begin reopening some offices for reduced services this week, advocates have been frustrated over the agency’s refusal to just fucking get on Zoom and hold virtual oath ceremonies so immigrants can finish the process.
“We are really advocating for virtual oath ceremonies because it’s not fair for folks who have been in this process for years to have their dreams deferred because of this pandemic when the Supreme Court is able to do oral arguments over the phone and people are able to get married on Zoom,” Krystina François, executive director of Miami-Dade County’s Office of New Americans, told Miami Herald. “You should still be able to become a citizen using technology as well.”
While many Americans have become newly adjusted to videoconferencing, it’s been nothing new for the federal government when it comes certain procedures. “Well before the outbreak, immigration courts conducted deportation hearings via videoconference,” The Washington Post reported last month. “The USCIS acknowledges it has re-interviewed refugees via videoconference in certain limited circumstances. Political appointees, too, were sworn in remotely long before the coronavirus spread.”
“But when it comes to citizenship oaths, the USCIS has so far refused to swear people in by phone or videoconference,” the report continued. Of course this is for a reason, because what office closures and this refusal to hold virtual oath ceremonies have meant is immigrants have been at dire risk of not being able to vote this November in what is likely the most consequential election in terms of immigrant rights in modern U.S. history.
Boundless said in its April report “that some 2,100 immigrants will run out of time to vote as U.S. citizens for each day that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices remain closed. If the closures last until late fall, this could add up to as many as 441,000 missing voters in the general election.” Ur Jaddou, director of DHS Watch and former USCIS chief counsel, said in a statement received by Daily Kos that there’s been nothing holding the agency back from virtual oaths. “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. But it takes will and interest to do so.”
“All around the government, agencies have made bold accommodations in response to COVID-19,” Jaddou continued. “And, under the Trump administration, DHS has not been shy to stretch immigration law to fit its immigration policy priorities, even when many courts and legal scholars disagree with their legal justification. Here, the law leaves room for USCIS to maneuver and make appropriate accommodations that should be high priority for any administration.”
Immigrant rights advocacy group America’s Voice said in the statement: “The HEROES Act, which recently passed the House, would allow for virtual naturalization ceremonies, but passage by the Senate of this measure or any other measure to get naturalization ceremonies up and running again is uncertain.” The Republican playbook has always been to get fewer people to vote—and that despicably includes would-be naturalized U.S. citizens attempting to vote for the very first time.
“I understand USCIS’ desire to want to meet people in person for the citizenship interview because there are so many security issues and we need to make sure that we are letting the right people become citizens,” Santana continued to Miami Herald. “But for the actual oath ceremony, at that point the person has been cleared. We know they don’t represent any sort of danger, so I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to do it virtually.”
