The USCIS citizenship test may soon become harder under the Donald Trump administration, with officials considering an essay requirement, Axios reported on Sept. 7. The report said the essay could give immigration officers broader discretion in deciding which immigrants qualify for citizenship.
USCIS has already announced plans to make the test more difficult. Joseph Edlow, director of USCIS, told the New York Times (NYT) in late July that โthe current test is not very difficultโ and that โit is easy to memorize the questions and answers, which does not align with the lawโs intent.โ
The planned change would shift the test from the current formatโstudy 100 civics questions and answer at least 6 out of 10 correctlyโto requiring 12 correct out of 20 questions. This mirrors the approach used during the first Donald Trump administration.
Axios noted that if an essay is added, subjective judgments could play a larger role when officers assess the immigration law requirement of โgood moral character.โ The outlet also said that this could lead to more arbitrary decisions on citizenship approval and an increase in lawsuits against USCIS from denied applicants.
Eric Welsh, a partner at Reeves Immigration Law Group, warned that โthe likelihood of deciding citizenship approvals based on arbitrary factors such as race is increasing,โ calling it โa very dangerous path.โ
