U.S. Citizenship Test May Soon Require Migrants to Speak English

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is considering significant changes to the citizenship test, possibly adding an English-speaking section and multiple-choice civics questions, making it harder for would-be Americans.

Currently, the citizenship test does not evaluate the applicant’s English skills. The only time the applicant’s English skills are put to the test is during the eligibility interview the candidate has with an immigration officer. An officer would show photos of ordinary scenarios to the test takers, which they would have to describe orally.

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Large Number of Criminal Juveniles Entering U.S. Through DACA: Report

Democrats and immigration activists have long claimed that amnesty for illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children wouldn’t include young people with a criminal history, but many of the juvenile beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) were affiliated with gangs and had arrest records when granted the program’s benefits, according to a new report.

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Department of Homeland Security Insider Blows the Whistle on Biden Regime Policies That Allow Sex Traffickers and Drug Cartels to Operate in U.S.

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employee has gone public to expose U.S. immigration policies that help sex traffickers and drug cartels operate in the United States.

Aaron Stevenson, an intelligence research specialist for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), told Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe that he came forward because the Biden administration is dangerously overhauling America’s immigration policies with zero oversight.

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Feds Fund Minnesota Groups to Help Permanent Residents Become Citizens

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has given around $250,000 to two Minnesota organizations that will assist lawful permanent residents (LPRs) in becoming U.S. citizens.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith announced the funding in a Friday news release. The International Institute of Minnesota and Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid are the two organizations slated to receive the money.

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America First Legal Requests Investigation into the Biden Administration’s Afghanistan Withdrawal, Demands Answers on ‘Vetting’ of Evacuees

America First Legal is demanding an investigation into the Biden administration regarding its withdrawal from Afghanistan and is requesting answers from a number of government agencies over the handling of evacuees, according to a letter and six Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The group has asked the Department of Defense (D0D) acting inspector general for an investigation into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, specifically into the reported “‘Kill List’ Given to the Taliban,” information revealing what the president knew from intelligence reports, details about the “abandoned equipment and assets” and about leaving Bagram air base, as well as information about the “effective deployment of US air force assets.”

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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Can’t Confirm Citizenship Status of Gunman Who Shot Metro Nashville Police Officer

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department at house in suburbs

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) couldn’t confirm the citizenship status of Salman Mohamed, the 22-year-old gunman who shot at Metro Nashville Police officers earlier this month. The Tennessee Star placed an open records request with USCIS, only to be told that Mohamed’s date and place of birth would be required in order to verify Mohamed’s citizenship status. The Star offered USCIS this information: Mohamed’s full name, age, last known residence, and date of death.

After assessing your request, and consistent with 6 C.F.R. § 5.3, USCIS FOIA has determined your request did not describe the records sought in sufficient detail to enable our personnel to locate such records with a reasonable amount of effort. A date of birth and place of birth should be provided for the subject of record in order to enable our personnel to locate such records with a reasonable amount of effort. Accordingly, this office is administratively closing your request pursuant to 6 C.F.R. § 5.3(c). This administrative closure does not prejudice your ability to submit a new FOIA request. (emphasis added)

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Homeland Security Nominee Mayorkas Raked in Millions at Corporate Law Firm Representing Utility Company Responsible for Fatal Gas Explosion

by Chuck Ross   Alejandro Mayorkas, President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of homeland security, received $3.3 million last year as a partner at his law firm, where he represented a defense contractor accused of kickbacks to secure a Department of Energy contract and a utility company found responsible for an explosion that killed one person in Massachusetts. Mayorkas, who served as deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under President Barack Obama, also faced an investigation during the Obama administration regarding a visa program he oversaw as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). A 2015 report from the DHS inspector general said Mayorkas “exerted improper influence” to help politically-connected Democrats navigate the EB-5 visa program, which awards green cards to foreigners who invest in American companies. Mayorkas was also accused in a House report in 2002 of “inappropriate” intervention on behalf of a Democratic donor who sought a presidential pardon from Bill Clinton. Mayorkas will appear before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Jan. 19 for his confirmation hearing. Mayorkas, who was a U.S. attorney in Los Angeles during the Clinton administration, joined Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, a prominent Big Law firm, after…

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Dems Ask That Public Charge Rule Not Apply to Immigrant Coronavirus Treatment, Which It Already Doesn’t

A group of House Democrats is asking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) not to penalize green card applicants for seeking medical care for coronavirus, but the government already made clear it wouldn’t.

Thirty-eight House Democrats signed a letter delivered to acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Tuesday, asking him to remove any assistance for COVID-19 care as part of the recently-enacted public charge rule. The rule takes into account a migrant’s past use of government-funded assistance when they apply for permanent status.

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ICE ‘Ready’ to Apprehend and Deport One Million Illegal Immigrants

by Jason Hopkins   The acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said the government is “ready” to identify, detain, and deport the illegal immigrants who have ignored court orders to leave the country. “They’re ready to just perform their mission, which is to go and find and detain and then deport the approximately one million people who have final removal orders,” Ken Cuccinelli said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Cuccinelli was referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency with the Department of Homeland Security that’s tasked with locating and deporting aliens living in the U.S. illegally. “Who among those will be targeted for this particular effort, or not,  is really just information kept within ICE at this point,” the acting USCIS director explained. Cuccinelli’s comments come after President Donald Trump announced — and then later scrapped — plans in June to conduct sweeping ICE raids across the country. The raids would’ve targeted major U.S. cities and roughly 2,000 undocumented immigrants who are disobeying deportation orders.  Trump, at the time, said the raids were postponed in order to work with Democrats on a solution to the immigration crisis, but other accusations make it unclear why exactly the raids were…

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Trump Officially Taps Immigration Reformer Ken Cuccinelli to Lead Citizenship and Immigration Services

by Jason Hopkins   Former GOP Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli officially began leading the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Monday, making him a key player in the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. “I am honored to be given the opportunity to lead U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at this critical time and serve alongside this agency’s dedicated workforce,” Cuccinelli said in a Monday statement distributed by the agency. “USCIS has the extraordinary responsibility to administer and protect the integrity of our nation’s lawful immigration system. Our nation has the most generous legal immigration system in the world and we must zealously safeguard its promise for those who lawfully come here.” USCIS, an agency with in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is tasked with managing the country’s legal immigration system. Cuccinelli is expected to hit the ground running on a number of policies backed by the White House – such as finalizing the public charge rule, which blocks visa applicants who are determined to be likely dependent on public safety net programs, and implementing reforms to the country’s guest-worker program. The now-acting director of the agency has long been known as an immigration hardliner. He has publicly opposed birthright citizenship and unemployment benefits…

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Kevin McAleenan, the Upcoming Leader of Homeland Security

by Jason Hopkins   Kirstjen Nielsen will officially vacate her position atop the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, leaving Kevin McAleenan as the acting head. President Donald Trump, frustrated over the growing immigration crisis on the U.S. southern border, accepted Nielsen’s resignation after meeting with her at the White House on Sunday. The president went on to announce that McAleenan, the current commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), will be taking over her position in an acting capacity. Who is McAleenan and how will he likely manage the surge of illegal migrant crisis? The soon-to-be DHS secretary touts nearly two decades of experience working in immigration enforcement. A graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, McAleenan worked for some time as an attorney in California. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, however, prompted him to apply for the FBI, but he ended up working in what is now CBP. He quickly moved up the ranks under both the Bush and Obama administrations. McAleenan was the port director for the Los Angeles International Airport and he served as the executive director of CBP’s antiterrorism office. He was appointed by former President Barack Obama as deputy commissioner of CBP in 2014, and he was awarded the…

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