Olga Santos stood before a small crowd of farmworkers and their families—many of them Mexican immigrants—at a Santa Maria Domestic Workers Alliance event in mid-September. Following presentations by candidates for Santa Maria’s City Council, Santos addressed comments made last year by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“Maybe this candidate is saying we’re criminals,” Santos said in Spanish as her colleague Hazel Davalos translated. “I say, no. We’re not criminals. We came looking for a better life, the American dream.”
Each year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) processes hundreds of thousands of naturalization applications from immigrants vying for U.S. citizenship. But since last year, those numbers have spiked 30 percent, according to data released last month from USCIS. From Jan. 1 to June 30 in 2016, nearly 540,000 immigrants submitted naturalization applications, up from 414,000 in the first half of 2015.
The San Fernando Valley USCIS field office processes naturalization applications from around the Central Coast, including San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. This office saw a 21 percent increase in naturalization applications during the Jan. 1 to June 30 time frame—trailing the national increase, but still significant—as numbers surged from 7,489 in 2015 to 9,116 in 2016.
The Associated Press reported that the increase could be in reaction to Trump’s candidacy—both because he has threatened mass deportations, lighting a fire under immigrants to snag citizenship as soon as possible, and because immigrants might want the opportunity to vote against him.
Immigrant groups across the nation have been pushing for the naturalization of eligible immigrants for voter registration purposes. Locally, the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE)—which advocates for paths to citizenship for the more than 110,000 undocumented immigrants between Santa Barbara and Ventura counties—launched its biggest ever voter registration drive in July.
While efforts like these might make a dent in naturalization applications, USCIS spokesperson Claire Nicholson told the Sun that the agency has seen a surge in applications across the board—not just for citizenship, but for other forms of documentation, as well.
Nicholson said a desire to vote wouldn’t explain the recent increase in green card applications, for example, because a green card doesn’t impact one’s right to vote. Still, she acknowledged that the election year might have something to do with the spike in naturalization applications.
“It’s a really personal choice for when to become a U.S. citizen,” Nicholson said. “One of the benefits of citizenship is the right to vote, so that may be one of the reasons we’re seeing an increase right now.”
A Pew Research Center report released last month supports that theory, confirming that immigrant naturalization applications are at their highest levels since the last general election, and they’re even slightly higher than they were in 2012.
As for the documentation applications USCIS receives year to year, Nicholson said, “We see ebbs and flows all the time.” The reasons differ: Sometimes immigrants want to become citizens so they can bring their family members into the United States, or so they can run for public office, Nicholson said.
On top of that, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security bumped the standard fee for Form N-400—the application for naturalization—from $595 to $640 starting on Oct. 1, which may have contributed to an increase in applications earlier this year.
But wait, there’s more: As of June 30, USCIS had more than half a million applications pending review. By comparison, in June 2015 the agency was waiting to process fewer than 400,000 naturalization applications.
The New York Times called it a “federal backlog,” reporting that many applicants won’t see the end of the naturalization process before their voter registration deadlines pass.
In the San Fernando Valley’s USCIS field office alone, more than 8,300 naturalization applications are still awaiting review. That’s up 26 percent from last year’s “pending” pile, and the deadline to register to vote in California is fast approaching on Oct. 24.
But according to USCIS, the San Fernando Valley office is currently processing naturalization applications from five months ago, which Nicholson said is within the targeted time frame for application processing.
“We’re dedicated to making sure we meet processing times,” she said. And despite the “backlog,” the agency is keeping up: Most field offices are processing naturalization applications within five to seven months, which is the targeted time frame and has been so since Nicholson began work at USCIS six years ago.
“They can expect to have their citizenship process completed within the usual processing time,” Nicholson said.
Staff Writer Brenna Swanston can be reached at bswanston@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 13-20, 2016.