More permanent residents in the US are applying to gain full citizenship, according to new figures from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). In 2015, there were 782,975 applications for citizenship filed, a figure that rose to almost a million last year as Donald Trump’s Presidency campaign promises to deport undocumented immigrants became more serious.
At the end of the first quarter of the 2017 fiscal year, which ran from the beginning of October to the end of December 2016, after Trump had become President-Elect, the number of applications for citizenship given to USCIS had reached 239,628. This compares to the 187,635 received in the first quarter of the 2016 fiscal year.
Wilfredo Allen, a Miami-based immigration attorney, says that many lawful permanent residents who qualify for naturalization are keen to become full US citizens because of fears they will be forced to give up their residency if they leave the country on holiday and then try to return. They believe citizenship would be their only defense against deportation, although Allen says these fears appear unfounded.
Holders of green cards were never intended to be the target of the executive orders on immigration signed by President Trump, with his travel ban now heading for a legal showdown in the Supreme Court. USCIS officials dispute the argument that the President is responsible for the increase, pointing out that application numbers can go up and down annually, as well as within the same fiscal year.