As a critical election approaches, the addition of a large number of new voters could potentially influence electoral outcomes, particularly in closely contested regions.
Since President Biden took office and Vice President Kamala Harris was made Border Czar, approximately 3.3 million immigrants have been granted U.S. citizenship, with less than two months remaining in the 2024 fiscal year.
This acceleration not only alleviates the pandemic-induced backlog but also has the potential to reshape the electorate in the coming months, the New York Times reported.
“It’s unclear how many of the new voters live in battleground states, but a number of the states where Kamala Harris or Donald Trump must win have large and growing numbers of voting-age naturalized citizens, including Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania,” the Times reported.
“In Savannah, Ga., people from 19 countries streamed into a federal courthouse recently to take the oath of allegiance,” the report added.
“My case was done in less than six months,” said Gladis Brown, who is married to an American, and emigrated from Honduras in 2018.
The Biden administration’s efforts to reverse many of Trump’s hardline immigration policies have played a key role in the increased efficiency of citizenship approvals. Significant changes include the reduction of the naturalization application form from 20 pages to 14, a move aimed at simplifying the process.
Additionally, the application fee was raised from $640 to $710, with provisions made to facilitate discounts for low-income applicants. These changes are part of a broader strategy to restore trust in the U.S. legal immigration system and to ensure that the process is more accessible to eligible immigrants.
“The surge in naturalization efficiency isn’t just about clearing backlogs; it’s potentially reshaping the electorate, merely months before a pivotal election,” said Xiao Wang, chief executive of Boundless.
“Every citizenship application could be a vote that decides Senate seats or even the presidency,” Mr. Wang said.
The federal government’s increased pace of citizenship approvals marks a significant shift in U.S. immigration policy. By rapidly and perhaps recklessly clearing the immigration backlog, the Biden administration is potentially altering the composition of the electorate ahead of critical elections.
This was once derided as the “great replacement theory’ — a figment of conservatives’ imagination. Here, the Harris-Biden administration’s allies are openly boasting about it in the New York Times.
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