About 3.3 million immigrants have become citizens during President Biden’s time in office now that the federal government has seemingly formed an express lane for naturalization. It's not terribly uncommon to see a spike in newly minted citizens in election years, just in time to vote, but rarely does it occur at quite this rate - the fastest in a decade.
From Open Borders to Naturalization
During the first nine months of this fiscal year, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reduced the application process for naturalization to an average of 4.9 months, nearly six months shorter than in fiscal 2021. Xiao Wang, chief executive of Boundless, a company that helps migrants navigate the application process, told The New York Times: “The surge in naturalization efficiency isn’t just about clearing backlogs; it’s potentially reshaping the electorate, merely months before a pivotal election. Every citizenship application could be a vote that decides Senate seats or even the presidency.”
That’s right: The Census counts undocumented immigrants and noncitizens, which is why many Republicans and their supporters have suggested Democratic states are intentionally harboring illegal aliens to gain congressional seats. According to The Heritage Foundation, “[A] state can gain extra congressional districts and representation in Congress thanks to the presence of a large population that isn’t legally allowed to vote. Since the number of congressional seats is limited to 435, this additional representation comes at the expense of other states.”
Will it matter? Where do these new citizens call home? “It’s unclear how many of the new voters live in battleground states,” the NYT noted, “but a number of the states where Kamala Harris or Donald Trump must win have large and growing numbers of voting-age naturalized citizens.”
Then There’s the Fraud
Illegal border crossings have ostensibly decreased since February, reaching a “three-year low” in June, which was also when Biden issued an executive order to restrict asylum claims. The executive order is difficult to see as meaningful and productive, however, when a report recently revealed that the Biden-Harris administration’s migrant parole program is rife with fraud.
Last week, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) released “the alarming results of an internal review USCIS performed of thousands of sponsor applications for the Cuban-Haitian-Nicaragua-Venezuela (CHNV) parole program ‘to identify patterns, trends, and potential fraud indicators.’ The new and never disclosed internal report suggests massive fraud in the application process, and specifically, fraudulent information used in thousands of Forms I-134A, the paperwork a sponsor files with USCIS for each alien seeking parole through the CHNV program.”
USCIS unearthed evidence of fraudulent social security cards, repeated IP addresses, nonexistent zip codes, and the same phone numbers recurring on numerous applications. The CHNV parole program began in October of 2022, was expanded in January 2023, and has benefited, FAIR estimated, over 494,000 migrants. How many of those who falsified information are still illegally in the country? Are any now naturalized US citizens?
Politicians aren’t often known for their honesty and selflessness, and it’s difficult to believe that the left welcomes migrants to the US with open wallets only because they care about strangers and wish them to have the same freedoms as Americans. Why even create a parole program giving so many migrants a fast-tracked trip to the US? More importantly, how many have registered to vote? If they cast ballots, whom might they vote for: the guy who wants to make it difficult for immigrants to enter the US or the unofficial border czar who’s partly responsible for allowing so many of them to enter the country?
