Citizenship Month May Be Over, But Our Fight to Defend It Isn’t

Preserving access to naturalization under Trump 2.0 requires us to meet the moment with tenacity

This is a guest post by the National Partnership for New Americans. Check out their podcast and subscribe, Together We Vote!

Last month, the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) observed Citizenship Month in the face of continued efforts to undermine access to citizenship by the administration. Looming fee hikes, cancelled interviews and oath ceremonies, subjective “good moral character” standards, and a harder civics test are among the strategies to curb access to citizenship. The agenda behind this is clear: to prevent people from being able to fully participate in our democracy.

Equally unnerving is the glaring connection between the cruel enforcement machine, gutting of immigration processes, mass delegalization, and additional hurdles to naturalization. However, last month, NPNA members and field partners showed that, despite these efforts, thousands of eligible immigrants continue to seek support on their road toward U.S. citizenship.

Where there’s a will to naturalize, our dedicated network of advocates and partners finds a way, guiding community members toward the pinnacle of their immigration journeys despite the obstacles.

Throughout September, across our network, citizenship clinics, oath ceremonies, story sharing, and community events took place to commemorate the incredible contributions of new Americans to our country, and the advocates supporting these aspiring new citizens along the way. Our network stood strong and undeterred in our pursuit to defend and protect access to citizenship.

We cannot, and will not, stand by as naturalization pathways continue to be stifled by the Trump administration. We must ensure that those who have taken the important step to pledge allegiance to our nation and participate in our civil society are welcomed into our democracy.

One new American recounts her 27-year journey to become a U.S. citizen, and soon, a voter.

“I’ve been familiar with the immigration system and it’s something I’ve lived with for a very long time,” said New Yorker Nicole Solis-Sison. “So to that is all behind me — [the] administrative, financial and emotional tax of having to be physically in the court system and fearing, ‘Is this the day that I get sent back to my home country?’ When I’ve called America home, I can [now] joyously say that I am here to stay, and that is why I am so excited to vote in my very first election.”

Although citizenship does not erase the years of navigating a broken immigration system, it does offer the strongest protection from deportation, along with many crucial rights, including the right to vote. These factors continue to motivate people in our community to take the next step toward naturalization, and why investing in naturalization is crucial to our communities.

Citizenship Month has ended, but our commitment to protecting and defending access to citizenship is entering a new era of Nurturing Naturalization.

Preserving access to naturalization under Trump 2.0 requires us to meet the moment with tenacity. In light of the administration’s threat to raise naturalization fees exponentially, government agencies and partners at the state and local level are exploring and in some cases already implementing programs to subsidize naturalization costs for eligible individuals, particularly low-income residents in their pursuit of citizenship. Through our Cities and Counties for Citizenship (CC4C) network of over 125 local government partners and NPNA members, efforts to replicate and expand these models will increase access for thousands of families. At the federal level, pending the midterm outcome, through advocacy with members of Congress and new allies, it is imperative that we join a unified call for accountability and agency oversight of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Looking beyond this moment and toward lasting impact, it is vital to document and archive our own telling of this moment in our nation’s history. With over 24 million people in the U.S. who are naturalized citizens, ranging from Hollywood actors, teachers, immigrant advocates, farmworkers, doctors and more, our story is one of power, impact, and endurance. Throughout the next year, we’ll have some exciting partnerships and mediums through which we’ll continue to share stories of solidarity among immigrants of all statuses, adding faces and stories behind the data and how we envision a future that includes all of us.

As we continue the fight to protect and defend access to citizenship, our long-term goal continues to be to expand pathways to citizenship so that more of our community can pursue this promise and no one is left behind.

Our communities are here to stay, and we will stand alongside them to ensure that access to citizenship is protected every step of the way.