Will Delays in Naturalization Affect Election 2020?

The global pandemic, threatened furloughs, and budgetary problems have delated the processing of naturalization petitions.  One is left to wonder whether the delays affect the outcome of the 2020 elections.  

A report from the naturalization services company Boundless Immigration found that more than 300,000 immigrants on the path to citizenship may not be naturalized in time to vote this November, Daniel Gonzalez reports for the Arizona Republic. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which processes naturalization applications, has suspended in-person interviews and ceremonies amid the coronavirus pandemic and has yet to reschedule them as it faces a budget shortfall, with more than two-thirds of the agency’s staff scheduled to be furloughed next month absent new congressional funding. While Dianne Solis at The Dallas Morning News reports that USCIS plans to complete all of its postponed naturalization ceremonies by the end of July, the remaining backlog could have a noticeable impact in swing states: “It’s estimated that about 8,000 immigrants in Pennsylvania likely won’t naturalize in time to vote,” reports Ryan Deto for the Pittsburgh City Paper. “In a state that President Trump only carried by about 44,000 votes in 2016, those potential votes could make a big difference come November.”

Are elections truly behind the administration’s naturalization slowdown?  Certainly, as the recent Census announcement makes clear in not proclaiming the undocumented persons included in the 2020 Census do not count ifor purposes of congressional districting, the politics of immigration and immigrants is on the mind of President Trump (who previously has claimed that immigrants unlawfully vote in large numbers).

KJ