The Last Second MAGA Desperation to Stop Citizenship

I have a friend taking his citizenship exam this week, so this story just infuriates me to no end.

Sanam, an Iranian immigrant who came to the US over a decade ago, was finally about to become a US citizen. Years of navigating paperwork, approvals, tests, and security vetting, had brought her to the last step: a naturalization ceremony.

But then, just two days before she was to take her oath on 3 December, the US government abruptly cancelled it.

Sanam was shocked and confused at first – there was no explanation. She didn’t understand why the ceremony was cancelled when she hadn’t done anything wrong, she told the BBC.

Later, she found out it was because of where she was born, and sadness and frustration crept in.

“It’s been just years and just feeling drained and feeling like, can I even keep going with this process? Because it’s been so hard,” Sanam said. “It’s just very heartbreaking.”

…

The cancelling of oath ceremonies is just one part of the Trump administration’s latest efforts to tighten immigration rules. Migrants from the 19 countries already subject to a travel ban have had their immigration processing halted no matter where they are in the process, not just those at the final step.

The move, and others like it, came in the days after an Afghan national opened fire on National Guard members in Washington DC on 26 November, killing one and critically injuring another. The Trump administration has used the shooting as justification for a number of new efforts to tamp down immigration, including sending an additional 500 National Guard troops to DC, reducing the work visa validity period from five years to 18 months, and pausing all asylum claim decisions.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services has said the restrictions are necessary to safeguard national security, protect American lives, and ensure public safety.

But Mario Bruzzone, vice president of policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, a nonprofit that represents hundreds of immigrant rights groups, said the restrictions put immigrants who are in need of protection in dangerous situations.

“An indefinite pause is a ban, plain and simple, and they’re using the recent shooting in DC as a pretext for an escalation in attacks on immigrants and refugees,” Mr Bruzzone told the BBC.

One Venezuelan immigrant, Jorge, was also on the cusp of becoming a US citizen when suddenly, less than 24 hours before his ceremony on 2 December, he was told it had been cancelled without explanation.

“I had everything prepared, including attending the ceremony with my son. To have it cancelled the day before, without any clear reason, left us with no clarity about the next steps,” Jorge said.

We are surrounded by pure evil and that evil is Stephen Miller.