Historically, naturalization has been a rare point of bipartisan agreement in the usually red-hot debates about immigration. After all, to become a U.S. citizen, an immigrant must have legal status, have lived in the United States with that status for at least five years, and pass a civics test that would likely challenge many native-born residents. This is a level of commitment that has traditionally stirred admiration for persistence and not resentment of a newcomer.
Indeed, one of the most memorable naturalization ceremonies I've attended occurred at the George W. Bush presidential library in Houston with the former president in attendance, administering the oath, and celebrating a crop of new Americans. Similarly, I recall tears in the eyes of the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona as he spoke of the posthumous naturalizations of immigrant soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice and gave their lives in Iraq serving in America's military in that faraway land.
As with so many things, former President Donald Trump broke bipartisan tradition. Despite the fact that his own wife is naturalized, he seemed to be determined to make it harder for others to follow her path. The most telling move: after conclusive research showing that higher fees deter immigrants from becoming citizens, the Trump administration proposed to nearly double the cost, a strategy that got blocked by a federal judge days before implementation.
By contrast, the Biden administration has just expanded a partial fee-waiver program for families with incomes between 200 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level, effectively halving the costs for approximately 1.8 million immigrants. Without this savings, fees for the citizenship process are more than $700. It's a strategy that makes economic sense: studies show that, for a variety of reasons (including access to more jobs and a more favorable attitude from employers), naturalized immigrants earn higher wages, suggesting that the overall financial gains to the nation could be significant.
What is less clear is how president and candidate Joe Biden can also ensure that he will get political benefits from pushing through this major shift in incentives. As with the economic improvements on his watch, credit will not automatically follow achievements. By shining more light on what the administration has done in addressing this arena, affordability, he can both pursue effective policy—making sure that immigrants understand and take advantage of the change in effective costs—and ensure that his campaign gains some naturalization wind to its sails.
To do this, he and the administration need to deploy resources to make sure that community members are aware of the waivers. If you're an eligible-to-naturalize immigrant, there are many reasons to be wary of the government, particularly if one of your immediate family members lacks legal status. But becoming a citizen may be one of the best ways to protect your family, and it is trusted messengers from community-based organizations that can deliver the message. Funding that community outreach is key and opens new avenues to activate voters.
To be clear, the current timeline is too tight for those who might naturalize with reduced fees to vote in the November elections—historically, a six-month delay between applying and securing permission to naturalize has been the standard (although the Trump administration managed to stretch that out by understaffing the relevant offices, creating a backlog that helped to suppress any potential oppositional vote from immigrant-friendly voters weary of Trump's constant attacks on their families).
But those organizations that would provide information about the fee waiver and promote naturalization take-up also tend to be engaged in non-partisan get-out-the-vote activities aimed at making sure new Americans live up to their civic opportunities and responsibilities. This informational outreach has its own rationale, but it could also make citizen relatives of those naturalized aware that the Biden administration has once again generated a program aimed squarely at reducing costs for working class Americans, a message that could be helpful in November.
Finally, as noted at the beginning, this represents a return to honoring the sort of bipartisan agreement that once joined together the American polity. Sticking with many of his campaign themes, Biden can remind people that what he is pursuing as policy is what has long been viewed as consensus—and was only recently abandoned by a xenophobic former president who sought to make it more difficult for hard-working legal immigrants to become part of the American family.
It's hard to find instances when good policy and good politics line up so well. Let's hope the Biden team finds a way to highlight the good news.
Manuel Pastor is a professor of sociology at the University of Southern California and author of the forthcoming book Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future, and previously State of Resistance: What California's Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Means for America's Future.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
