USCIS Director Discusses Changes Under Biden Administration
In a recent conversation with Breitbart News, Joseph Edlow, the director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), discussed his concerns about a significant shift in the naturalization process under former President Joe Biden’s administration. He mentioned that the administration altered a crucial security question, which he felt compromised the integrity of the naturalization process.
Shortly after taking office in February 2021, Biden enacted executive orders aimed at boosting naturalization efforts among immigrants. One of these orders directed USCIS to “eliminate barriers and improve existing naturalization processes.” This was intended to cut down processing times for applicants.
During the interview, Edlow highlighted that the Biden administration seems to have reduced the complexity of security questions for those seeking citizenship. “They went ahead and cut off the security questions,” he stated, noting how the interviews were simplified.
He elaborated, stating, “Instead of confirming all the applicant’s answers, they focused on some very basic questions. Based on those answers, they assumed the rest were similar,” which he believes facilitated a quicker flow through the process.
This approach, according to Edlow, helped achieve Biden’s objective of rapidly naturalizing millions of new citizens and potential voters from abroad. In less than four years, the Biden administration has granted citizenship to approximately 3.5 million immigrants, a number significantly higher than those awarded under previous presidents like Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
Currently, there are around 23 million naturalized citizens born outside the U.S., all now eligible to participate in elections at various levels.
Edlow emphasized that the focus of USCIS should not solely be on reaching numerical goals for naturalization. “For me, it’s not about raw numbers,” he said. He believes the quality of the screening process is more critical, wanting judges to take the necessary time to thoroughly assess applicants. “If there are certain benchmarks, I don’t want it to feel forced. It’s important that the process is thorough,” he concluded.
