Immigrants who are one step away from American citizenship have suddenly found themselves in limbo after President Donald Trump ordered a fresh immigration crackdown.
All over the country, the Trump administration has been canceling naturalization ceremonies of people from certain countries in the wake of the murder of a National Guardsman in Washington, D.C., according to reports by WGBH and The New York Times.
Project Citizenship, a nonprofit that works with immigrants in Massachusetts and New England, said that this month alone, 21 clients have received notices about the cancellation of their oath ceremonies, the last step in the lengthy process of becoming a U.S. citizen.
“One of our clients said that she had gone to her oath ceremony because she hadn’t received the cancellation notice in time,” Project Citizenship executive director Gail Breslow told WGBH. “She showed up as scheduled, and when she arrived, officers were asking everyone what country they were from, and if they said a certain country, they were told to step out of line and that their oath ceremonies were canceled.”
“People are devastated and they’re frightened,” she added. “People were plucked out of line. They didn’t cancel the whole ceremony.”
Last month, Trump intensified scrutiny of people from 19 countries deemed to be “of concern” after 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal—an Afghan immigrant granted asylum in April under the current administration—was identified as the suspect in the shooting of two National Guardsmen in D.C., which killed Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and injured Andrew Wolfe, 24.
The countries on that list include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Cuba, Burundi, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
Joseph Edlow, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, vowed in a statement after the D.C. shooting to “ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”
“Effective immediately, I am issuing new policy guidance that authorizes USCIS officers to consider country-specific factors as significant negative factors when reviewing immigration requests,” he said. “American lives come first.”
An internal guidance at the USCIS obtained by CBS News instructed staff to “stop final adjudication on all cases,” including “all form types and making any final decisions (approvals, denials) as well as completing any oath ceremonies.”
The Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of USCIS, confirmed in a statement to the Daily Beast that it “paused all adjudications for aliens from high-risk countries.”
“The pause will allow for a comprehensive examination of all pending benefit requests for aliens from the designated high-risk countries. The safety of the American people always come first,” a DHS spokesperson said.
The order halting naturalization ceremonies has stirred widespread confusion among immigrants and their lawyers, who are hard-pressed to provide answers.
“There is no time frame—nobody knows how long this is going to be,” immigration lawyer Teresa Coles-Davila told The Times. “Literally, no one knows what is happening.”
Rosanna, a student in Texas who was born in Libya and holds Canadian citizenship, told the outlet that she was looking forward to receiving an email setting the date for her oath ceremony but instead got a cancellation notice.
“It’s definitely disappointing. Having come from a third-world country, it’s just never-ending disappointment,” she said. “I definitely feel unwelcome here.”
