Immigrants Approved for Citizenship ‘Plucked Out’ of Line Moments Before Pledging Allegiance: Report

[MarcusGregor]

https://people.com/immigrants-approved-for-citizenship-pulled-out-by-officials-at-oath-ceremony-11863779

Immigrants were moments away from pledging allegiance to the United States in Boston — the final step of the long process to becoming a U.S. citizen — when government officials pulled them out of line, according to a new report.​

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The scene unfolded at Boston’s Faneuil Hall on Thursday, Dec. 4, according to the report from WGBH, a National Public Radio member station.​

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As people who were already approved to be naturalized — having completed the lengthy U.S. citizenship process — lined up to pledge allegiance, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials told them they could not continue due to their countries of origin, the outlet reported.​

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USCIS officials took individuals from the line because the federal agency has directed its employees to halt all immigration applications for nationals from the 19 countries that already faced travel restrictions since June due to a proclamation from President Donald Trump, per WGBH and NBC News. The Trump administration designated the list of largely African and Asian countries as high-risk.​

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They jumped through all the hoops and it wasn't enough for this administration. Some of these people have been in the U.S. for 20+ years raising families and contributing to the country. Now they will possibly be deported back to countries they haven't been to in decades and have no ties to anymore. What is this really about?

 

[GoldenBoy89]

What is this really about?

Cruelty is the point and the goal.

 

[BCP1928]

Cruelty is the point and the goal.

It's a shame, really. ICE is actually doing good work (in cooperation with local police even in "sanctuary cities") rounding up actual criminal gangsters that they have to be shy taking credit for because MAGA isn't really about that. Trump wants them to show that they can rough up people on ideological grounds.

 

[iluvatar5150]

What is this really about?

Hillary was right.

 

[MotoToTheMax]

Hillary was right.

She's becoming less correct every couple of months. Her initial claim of half the basket was right back then, but it sure seems like more than half is the correct approximation, and it's not getting better over time.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

They jumped through all the hoops and it wasn't enough for this administration. Some of these people have been in the U.S. for 20+ years raising families and contributing to the country. Now they will possibly be deported back to countries they haven't been to in decades and have no ties to anymore. What is this really about?

What should be the procedural cut-off for when an executive branch makes an administrative change to rules and prerequisites?

Is it when certain paperwork is filed?, when someone is X% of the way through the process?


So as an example:

If "Joe Smith" decided he wanted to go through process and red tape to be able to legally acquire a NFA-title 2 restricted class of firearm. He paid the tax, administrative fees, does multiple background checks, pays to get the fingerprinting and all of the paperwork done... Now he's just waiting on January 3rd to roll around which was the ETA the ATF gave to make everything official and legally do the transfer.

His state passes a new rule stating "Starting January 1st, there will be no new private sales or transfers of this type of firearm in this state"

Joe's already completely the procedural stuff, and is 95% of the way through the waiting period. Would that be fair to Joe and should they just let he run with it anyway since he was so close? Or is it more of a "rules are rules" and unfortunate implementation timing?


The reality is:
In fiscal year 2024, USCIS naturalized ~ 818,500 people
That translates to roughly 2,240 naturalizations per day


So given that, there's never going to be a good "implementation start date" that isn't going to come across as "mean" because no matter which day you pick, it's always going to impact some people who were right at the finish line of the process.

It's sort of like the people who were 2-3 days away from turning 18 when the new laws officially went into effect to raise the legal age to 21. Their buddies who turned 18 last week are able to enjoy the privilege and are grandfathered in. They're the victim of unfortunate timing.

 

[GoldenBoy89]

What should be the procedural cut-off for when an executive branch makes an administrative change to rules and prerequisites?

Is it when certain paperwork is filed?, when someone is X% of the way through the process?


So as an example:

If "Joe Smith" decided he wanted to go through process and red tape to be able to legally acquire a NFA-title 2 restricted class of firearm. He paid the tax, administrative fees, does multiple background checks, pays to get the fingerprinting and all of the paperwork done... Now he's just waiting on January 3rd to roll around which was the ETA the ATF gave to make everything official and legally do the transfer.

His state passes a new rule stating "Starting January 1st, there will be no new private sales or transfers of this type of firearm in this state"

Joe's already completely the procedural stuff, and is 95% of the way through the waiting period. Would that be fair to Joe and should they just let he run with it anyway since he was so close? Or is it more of a "rules are rules" and unfortunate implementation timing?


The reality is:
In fiscal year 2024, USCIS naturalized ~ 818,500 people
That translates to roughly 2,240 naturalizations per day


So given that, there's never going to be a good "implementation start date" that isn't going to come across as "mean" because no matter which day you pick, it's always going to impact some people who were right at the finish line of the process.

It's sort of like the people who were 2-3 days away from turning 18 when the new laws officially went into effect to raise the legal age to 21. Their buddies who turned 18 last week are able to enjoy the privilege and are grandfathered in. They're the victim of unfortunate timing.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

What, is that not true?

Given that we average 2,240 naturalizations per day, any policy change or new restriction is always going to be "cruel timing" for somebody. No matter which day you pick, and no matter how far out you pick it, there's always going to be some people who just barely missed the cutoff when they thought they were in the home stretch.

If policy changes could never be disruptive to people who were at the final phase of the process, then there would never be any policy changes, because there are perpetually always people at the final phase of the process.

 

[GoldenBoy89]

What, is that not true?

Given that we average 2,240 naturalizations per day, any policy change or new restriction is always going to be "cruel timing" for somebody. No matter which day you pick, and no matter how far out you pick it, there's always going to be some people who just barely missed the cutoff when they thought they were in the home stretch.

If policy changes could never be disruptive to people who were at the final phase of the process, then there would never be any policy changes, because there are perpetually always people at the final phase of the process.

I just find constantly playing devil's advocate and seeing people's real problems as purely hypothetical exercises in logic to be getting very tiresome. You don't have to try and rationalize everything this administration does, you know.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I just find constantly playing devil's advocate and seeing people's real problems as purely hypothetical exercises in logic to be getting very tiresome. You don't have to try and rationalize everything this administration does, you know.

On topics where I disagree with the Administration, I push back quite hard with the same approach...but those topics on here are few and far between. I went hard on the anti-vaxxers during covid, I've pushed back on climate change denialism in the past. When Israel funding comes up, I criticize that... I'd be more in-line with the left on matters of campaign finance reform, and drug policy. Rewind a decade when gay marriage was the hot topic, I sided with the left on that.

Those topics don't pop up as much anymore

The thread content is heavily saturated with the topics of immigration and DEI related stuff as of late. I can't help it that 75% of the threads that come up happen to fall into the handful of topics where I have some overlap with the conservatives.

 

[iluvatar5150]

What should be the procedural cut-off for when an executive branch makes an administrative change to rules and prerequisites?

Is it when certain paperwork is filed?, when someone is X% of the way through the process?

Some time before they've completed all of the necessary prerequisites. There's a reason that ex post facto laws are generally prohibited in this country.

 

[Richard T]

Glad to hea

On topics where I disagree with the Administration, I push back quite hard with the same approach...but those topics on here are few and far between. I went hard on the anti-vaxxers during covid, I've pushed back on climate change denialism in the past. When Israel funding comes up, I criticize that... I'd be more in-line with the left on matters of campaign finance reform, and drug policy. Rewind a decade when gay marriage was the hot topic, I sided with the left on that.

Those topics don't pop up as much anymore

The thread content is heavily saturated with the topics of immigration and DEI related stuff as of late. I can't help it that 75% of the threads that come up happen to fall into the handful of topics where I have some overlap with the conservatives.

Glad to hear that you think through on various issues and are not a political party puppet. Always better to know why you support or believe something yourself rather than rely on others.

 

[Yttrium]

What should be the procedural cut-off for when an executive branch makes an administrative change to rules and prerequisites?

Cut off new applications. Don't slam the door on people who are already in the process of becoming citizens.