The Trump administration will add an essay portion to the citizenship test in the latest scheme to reduce immigration. At a conference earlier this week, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow said he was “declaring war on fraud” in the naturalization process and that the current test—which tests for civic knowledge and English language competency—was “just too easy.” Essay prompts may include “What does it mean to be an American?” or “Who was your favorite founding father?” or “something that is going to really show an attachment to the Constitution,” Edlow said. No definitive timeline has been set, but Edlow said he would like to implement the changes in the next year. “Ultimately, what I’d like to see is moving to a standardized test where an applicant goes beforehand to a testing center, answers the questions, we’ll get a sense of whether they understand what’s going on,” Edlow said. The current citizenship exam consists of 10 questions, and test-takers must get six correct to obtain citizenship. The move comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement ramps up deportation raids across the country—including, most recently, in Boston—making good on President Donald Trump’s pledge to conduct the “largest deportation operation in U.S. history.”
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