The Trump administration is wasting no time making American citizenship harder to access and easier to deny. Just weeks into the new term, the Trump administration has proposed alarming changes to multiple immigration forms, including the naturalization application. These changes include requirin g immigrants to disclose all of their social media usernames and provide personal information about family members, even if those relatives are undocumented and the information is irrelevant to the merit of a naturalization application. The government is also forcing permanent residents to choose between disclosing personal information about people they care about, possibly risking their deportation, and accessing naturalization. In another blow, the Department of Homeland Security terminated the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program. These essential grants, started in 2009, have enjoyed bipartisan support and allowed trusted local organizations to help lawful permanent residents become U.S. citizens. Community-based nonprofits with long and successful track records have relied on this support to provide legal assistance and civic and English instruction. The decision to cancel the grants — which are funded through congressional appropriations — cuts off critical infrastructure and undermines efforts that have helped thousands of immigrants learn English and complete the naturalization process. When the Asian Counseling and Referral Service, an organization in Seattle that provides naturalization services, learned that their DHS grant had been terminated, they shared that the grant “constitutes 27 percent of the total annual funding for our citizenship program, so this cut will have a significant impact on our community, our programming, and our team. Many lawful permanent residents now feel unsafe and uncertain about their future, leading to an all-time high demand for citizenship and naturalization services.” Despite these challenges, organizations like Asian Counseling and Referral Service are committed to promoting naturalization and helping aspiring immigrants achieve their American Dream. Unfortunately, more barriers are likely coming, such as increased application fees, a revised naturalization test designed to lower the passing rate and potential delays in processing times, especially if the application becomes more burdensome. Even immigrants who meet all the legal requirements for naturalization are being made to jump through unnecessary hoops to slow down their path to U.S. citizenship. Collecting social media histories and investigating family background are not about public safety but about surveillance. Eliminating funding for citizenship preparation is not about efficiency, it is about dismantling a system that works. These threats matter because more than 10 million lawful permanent residents in the U.S. are potentially eligible to apply for citizenship. That’s 10 million people who are already part of our communities. They are working, raising families and paying taxes. These people are simply trying to complete the final step in the immigration process to become American citizens. Citizenship provides legal protection, opens doors to better jobs and protects from deportation. According to the Migration Policy Institute, naturalized citizens tend to earn higher incomes and experience lower poverty rates. These contributions benefit U.S. citizens too, by boosting the economy through higher tax revenue, economic growth and increased civic engagement. And yet, instead of supporting lawful permanent residents, the Trump administration is erecting barriers designed to dissuade them from trying. Naturalization is the final step in a long and rigorous process that immigrants approach with seriousness and a deep respect for the law and the Constitution. My organization has worked with countless naturalized citizens who speak powerfully about why they became Americans. Many come from countries where dissent is punished and free speech is curtailed. They don’t take democratic freedoms for granted. On the contrary, they value those freedoms precisely because they’ve seen what happens in their absence. I know this firsthand. I was born in Venezuela, a country where democracy has been gutted and civil liberties stripped away. I became a proud American citizen because I believe in what this country stands for: the rule of law, freedom of speech and the power of civic participation. The absence of these are at the core of everything that has crumbled in my country of birth. Creating new and unnecessary barriers for immigrants who value American institutions and contribute to our economy is unnecessary. It politicizes what has historically been a nonpartisan issue within our immigration system. It affects us all. Lucia Martel Dow is director of the New Americans Campaign at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. ...read more read less