Posted on September 30, 2016

Backlog Could Prevent Hundreds of Thousands of Immigrants From Becoming Citizens Before the Election

Alice Miranda Ollstein, Think Progress, September 30, 2016

Long Island attorney Elise Damas usually helps about 500 immigrants become U.S. citizens each year. This year, she has seen applications double, and says the vast majority of her clients cite a primary motivation.

“They dislike Donald Trump’s rhetoric. They’re angry about the way he has portrayed their communities. They’re afraid of what would happen if Trump became president,” she told ThinkProgress. “Some of these people have been residents for 40 or 50 years, but they’ve never been inspired to become citizens until Trump walked onto the national stage.”

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While citizenship applications tend to increase in every presidential election year, the rest of the country is also reporting a record spike in 2016. Nearly a million people have applied for citizenship since the beginning of this year, many of them similarly motivated by fear of a Donald Trump presidency. Though these applicants are a small fraction of the nearly 9 million immigrants eligible to become citizens, it’s enough to potentially change the outcome of the 2016 election  —  especially in key swing states like Colorado, Florida, and Nevada.

But thanks to a severe backlog at the federal agency that processes these applications  —  United States Immigration and Citizenship Services  —  more than half of these would-be citizens may not be able to cast a ballot in November. A study by the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) found that more than 500,000 people could be disenfranchised by what they called an “avoidable” backlog.

“Those who applied to become citizens before June of this year should have been able to complete their exams, take their oaths, and register to vote by November,” the NPNA said. “USCIS should have anticipated the surge in applications and dedicated the appropriate staff and resources to reducing the delays at the Federal agency, as well as in field offices around the country.”

The report identifies 15 states  —  dubbed “Disenfranchisement Danger Zones” due to the length of their backlog  —  many of which are also key swing states that will decide the 2016 election. If tens of thousands of eligible applicants in Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania are not processed, and if polls remain close, it could cost Hillary Clinton victory both in those states and nationally.

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