The Biden administration’s attempt to redesign the citizenship test has become contentious, with some immigration rights advocates arguing it would make it tougher for new arrivals to earn citizenship.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is testing an English section that requires applicants to describe pictures and a multiple-choice format for the civics questions. The agency wants the updates in place next year if all goes well.
Rights activists say they expect immigrants to struggle with the new requirements.
“We have concerns that the proposed format and content of the test will impose new barriers to naturalization, particularly for those with lower English literacy skills and those not eligible for the English language exemption,” said Helena Coric of the National Immigration Forum, a leading immigration advocacy group. “We have encouraged USCIS to treat the trial test as a research opportunity to evaluate test design and format and to be prepared to offer alternatives or forgo those changes if the trial format does not work well for these vulnerable populations.”
Alfonso Aguilar, who led the 2008 redesign that produced the test’s current version, said the Biden administration is trying to water down the exam.
“It’s funny that progressive immigration advocates are complaining that the test may become harder when it’s pretty clear that these changes by the Biden administration are intended to make the test easier,” he said.
The goal of the test is to ensure applicants have a good grasp of American history and how the government operates and have a working knowledge of English.
Immigrants are given questions to study beforehand and must get six out of 10 correct to pass the knowledge section. They also must demonstrate English skills to their interviewers unless they are exempt because of age or disability.
As with so much else about immigration, the test has become politicized.
The Trump administration tried to add questions to the study list and raise the bar to require at least 12 correct answers to 20 questions.
The Biden team reverted the test to the 2008 version that Mr. Aguilar oversaw and announced proposed changes last year.
The proposed revision would formally test English language skills by having an official ask the applicant to describe a series of photographs out loud.
The photos will come from a set of 40. Critics said that increases the likelihood that applicants will try to memorize interactions for each photo.
Mr. Aguilar said he prefers the current test, in which the interviewer asks personal questions that the immigrant answered on citizenship paperwork.
“The naturalization interview is the ideal setting to assess their English speaking skills. Effective two-way communication with a government official about matters of importance to oneself is essential to fully assimilate in America,” Mr. Aguilar said.
The Rev. Alvan I. Amadi, a Catholic priest in Wisconsin who immigrated from his native Nigeria in 2009 and became a citizen in 2021, said describing images to a government representative could be more intimidating for immigrants than discussing personal information.
“The proposed changes sound more difficult for test takers, especially having test takers describe images and pictures in their own words,” he told The Times. “The current test is challenging enough for immigrants, many of whom speak English as a second or third language.”
On the civics portion of the current test, applicants must answer six of 10 open-ended questions correctly from a bank of 100 questions. The multiple-choice test would give four possible answers to each question and ask the immigrant to choose the right one, with the same number of correct answers required.
Applicants would take the multiple-choice test on tablets rather than orally with an examiner, reducing the interaction that allows examiners to judge their English language skills.
Mr. Aguilar said immigration rights activists complained when the 2008 version was implemented, fearing it would be too hard.
He said the passage rate increased because immigrants were eager to engage with the material for the test.
According to USCIS figures, the passage rate ticked up slightly to 91% after the 2008 version was implemented and rose to 94% under the 2019 revision.
In 2021, the passage rate was 89.5% on the initial try and rose to 96.1% with the do-over each applicant is allowed.
Peter J. Spiro, an immigration law professor at Temple University who opposes the citizenship test requirement, said he has found no clear reason for changing the test format because the Trump revisions “didn’t really make the test harder” and the passage rate has “always been high.”
“In the end, I suspect, it will reduce to a different kind of exercise in memorization,” said Mr. Spiro, who studies citizenship. “Making public the pool of questions from which an examiner will select questions has always made the test more one of memorization than knowledge.”
In an email to The Washington Times, USCIS declined to provide materials from the new test and said it is still evaluating it.
“USCIS will continue to engage stakeholder partners, including community-based organizations with experience in naturalization, and the agency will thoroughly review trial-test results and their impact on reducing barriers to naturalization before considering any permanent revisions to the naturalization test,” the agency said.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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