Two immigrants who had nearly completed the U.S. citizenship process but whose naturalization ceremonies were cancelled due to the novel coronavirus pandemic have sued, demanding U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) allow them to immediately take the oath of allegiance in time to vote in November’s elections.
“Plaintiffs do not challenge the necessity of cancelling and postponing the oath ceremonies to safeguard against unwarranted exposure to COVID-19,” advocacy groups suing on behalf of the immigrants said. “However, they request that the court utilize an existing law enacted by Congress to address unique circumstances, such as a pandemic, by providing either judicial oath ceremonies or immediate administrative naturalization by USCIS.”
According to one estimate, as many as 125,000 immigrants who were on their way to citizenship were derailed from the process following the closure of USCIS offices due to the virus. While some have now reopened for reduced services, only about 2,000 new citizens have been sworn in, “just a fraction of the usual volume of new citizens” the agency sees, Roll Call reported. “Pre-pandemic, around 60,000 people were naturalized every month, according to government data.”
USCIS has steadily refused to conduct virtual ceremonies even as so much of our daily lives have gone online—and even as a former agency official said there’s nothing stopping the administration from going the Zoom route. “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 DHS Watch and former USCIS chief counsel, said in a statement received by Daily Kos. “But it takes will and interest to do so.”
The lawsuit, launched by the National Immigration Litigation Alliance (NILA), Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), and the Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin, and Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing, Feinberg & Lin LLP, could now cover hundreds of immigrants who were derailed from the naturalization process in the Philadelphia region, where the two plaintiffs live. “Plaintiffs ask the court to provide an expedited process to all class members so that they will be sworn in as U.S. citizens by late September, to ensure that they have time to register to vote in the fall elections,” the groups said.
“There has been so much negative fallout from the pandemic, including delaying the rights of citizenship to hundreds of lawful permanent residents in the Philadelphia area, every one of whom has already had their application approved, but now have been unable to complete the oath—the last step of the citizenship process,” NWIRP’s Matt Adams said. “Fortunately, Congress provided a tool for rare situations like this to allow the federal court to provide expedited oath ceremonies or to instruct USCIS to provide immediate administrative naturalizations.”
However, even if plaintiffs are successful in their case, USCIS’ dire financial situation makes it unclear if naturalizations could even proceed. BuzzFeed News reported last month that the agency is quickly running out of cash due to a drop in applications and may be forced to seek more than $1 billion from Congress. “USCIS did not respond to a request for answers on how naturalization ceremonies would continue if agency employees are laid off,” Roll Call said.
