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Topics: Donald Trump, News, US News, Politics
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: Donald Trump, News, US News, Politics
Donald Trump’s administration has explained that they intend to make changes to the citizenship tests to make it more difficult.
Donald Trump has made it clear that he intends to be tough on immigration.
While he has repeatedly praised and commended ICE, he and his administration may be taking steps to make it more difficult to become an American citizen.
Trump's director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has said that the citizenship test is currently ‘too easy’ and changes need to happen.
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Joseph Edlow, USCIS head, argued that those taking the test can simply memorize the answers and added ‘It's very easy to memorize the answers. I don't think we're really complying with the spirit of the law'.
"The test, as it's laid out right now, it's not very difficult."
Edlow also spoke to the New York Times about the benefits of overhauling citizenship tests.
He said: “I think it absolutely should be a net positive, and if we're looking at the people that are coming over, that are especially coming over to advance certain economic agendas that we have and otherwise benefit the national interest — that's absolutely what we need to be taking care of."
Before 2008, the US citizenship test was largely random and non-standardized, however, this changed under the Bush administration.
This year was when a standardized civics test was introduced and applicants had to correctly answer 6 out of 10 questions drawn from a pool of 100.
During Trump’s first administration, the test was expanded to 128 possible questions, with applicants needing to answer 12 out of 20 correctly.
However, the Joe Biden administration reverted to the previous format in March 2021.
The USCIS is now expected to return to a test similar to the 2020 version introduced during Trump’s first term.
Currently the program is for ‘skilled workers’ only, however, reports indicate Edlow would opt to prioritize people who will earn higher wages.
Edlow acknowledged that companies sometimes use the H-1B program to hire foreign workers at lower wages, ultimately disadvantaging American workers.
He went on to say: “I really do think that the way H-1B needs to be used, and this is one of my favorite phrases, is to, along with a lot of other parts of immigration, supplement, not supplant, U.S. economy and U.S. businesses and U.S. workers.”