In a political landscape where the smallest of margins can determine the fate of the White House, the Senate, and the House, the Los Angeles Times recently reported a surge in new U.S. citizens.
According to the Times, immigration authorities are approving citizenship applications at an unprecedented rate, the fastest in a decade. This surge is happening across the nation, raising eyebrows in some quarters.
The Biden administration attributes this increase in new citizens to efforts aimed at reducing a backlog of applications that began during the Trump administration and escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Times reported this from a naturalization ceremony in Riverside, California, where immigration officials insisted that the timing was not influenced by the election or any political agenda.
However, the Times also noted the display of American flags and messages emphasizing the immigrants' newfound power on a large screen. One such message read, "Today, I am an American. Today, I am a citizen of the country I serve. Today, I can register to vote."
The Times was quick to dismiss any insinuations of political maneuvering. It stated, "Former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have long repeated baseless claims that Democrats are admitting immigrants into the U.S. for political gain and allowing them to vote unlawfully." The paper also mentioned an unsuccessful attempt by House Speaker Mike Johnson to insert a GOP proposal requiring states to obtain proof of U.S. citizenship when people register to vote in the government spending bill this month.
Xiao Wang, the co-founder of a company that assists immigrants, was quoted saying, "This is not part of some master conspiracy to flood the country with new Democratic voters. Theres a lot of statistics that show many immigrants share more in common with Republican values."
However, with 4 million immigrants gaining citizenship since the 2020 election and applications being processed at an unprecedented speed, some observers couldn't help but note how these new citizens, particularly in border states, could potentially influence election outcomes. Nicole Melaku, the executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, pointed out, "In Arizona, we keep talking about how theres a 10,000-vote margin of victory."
The Times also reported that new citizens tend to lean Democratic, with about 54% of respondents in a National Partnership poll indicating they would vote for Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, while 38% said they would vote for Trump.
The processing time for citizenship applications has been halved from a record high of 11.5 months in 2021 to 4.9 months this fiscal year, matching the average processing time in 2014. This expedited processing is a result of the Biden administration's efforts to cut through the backlog.
Despite the initial insistence on the absence of a political agenda, the Times' report does hint at a potential political impact of this surge in new citizens. This has not gone unnoticed, with figures like Elon Musk, head of Tesla, SpaceX, and X/Twitter, commenting on the situation.
It's not conspiratorial to observe that the federal government's attention and resources seem to be directed towards specific areas. For instance, the situation in Springfield, Ohio, where the town is overwhelmed by Haitian migrants who received Temporary Protected Status mostly under Bidens administration, has strained both city and state services. The governor has been left pleading for the Biden administration to help.
In 2021, Harris boasted about fast-tracking TPS for Haitian migrants, presumably speaking on behalf of the Biden administration. Three years later, the governor of Ohio is pleading with Washington for financial assistance to handle the crisis. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, the federal government has managed to expedite citizenship for a group that tends to vote heavily Democratic.
These observations are not "baseless claims." They are simply noticing what gets attention and making assumptions about why it gets attention. It could be overt or simply a matter of subconscious preferences. Prioritizing fast-tracking citizenship while ignoring issues like the Springfield situation, the border crisis, or rising crime rates involves making a choice of what to focus on.
Claims based on a government's priorities don't involve the term "baseless claims." It's merely noticing the inconvenient, a critical aspect of journalistic scrutiny.
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