The Trump administration said they were planning to make the citizenship test harder.
Trump’s always pushed a strict line on immigration, and this seemed like just another step in that direction.
He’s often shown strong support for ICE, and now it looked like he was trying to raise the bar for people wanting to become U.S. citizens.
Trump officials believe the current citizenship test is too easy
Joseph Edlow, who was running the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the time, didn’t think the current test was doing the job.
“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.”
They want to raise the bar for aspiring citizens
The main idea behind changing the test was to make the whole process tougher.
Basically, it’d be more challenging for people to pass and become American citizens.
Edlow explains the benefits of overhauling the test
Edlow talked to the New York Times about why he thought reworking the test was a good thing.
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.”
Citizenship test used to be random
Before 2008, the citizenship test didn’t follow any set pattern. It was kind of random and different each time.
Then the Bush administration came in and made it standardized. That version had people answer 6 out of 10 questions, pulled from a set of 100.
The test expanded during Trump’s first term
Later on, during Trump’s first time in office, they updated it again.
That newer version had 128 questions total, and people had to get 12 right out of 20 to pass.
Biden reversed the changes in 2021
But in March 2021, Biden rolled it back to the older version that had been used before Trump’s updates.
The tougher 2020 version may return soon
Now, the plan was to bring back something close to Trump’s 2020 version again. That’s what the USCIS was reportedly aiming for.
Plans may also impact H-1B visa distribution
There was also talk about changing how H-1B visas are handed out.
The program’s meant for skilled workers, but Edlow seemed to want to focus more on giving those visas to folks who’d be making higher salaries.
He pointed out that some companies hire foreign workers for less money, and that hurts American workers in the long run.
Edlow says immigration should support but not replace US workers
He made it pretty clear what he thought about it all.
“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.”
