Term Page
Citizenship and Naturalization 
On July 28, 2025, the ILRC submitted a comment opposing a new government proposal to add extra questions to nine immigration forms, including applications for naturalization, asylum, and green cards.
On July 16, 2025, ILRC submitted a comment opposing a new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy that allows the agency to use “derogatory information” against immigration applicants without always disclosing it.
On May 2, 2025 the ILRC submitted a letter signed by 115 organizations has opposing a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) proposed rule to expand the information collected on immigration forms.
On May 2, 2025 the ILRC submitted a comment opposing a proposed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rule that would expand the collection of personal information from immigration applicants.
On May 5, 2025 the ILRC submitted a comment opposing a proposed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rule that would require immigrants to disclose their social media identifiers on application forms.
For many noncitizens, naturalization is the best defense against deportation from the United States. Indeed, USCIS lacks the authority to detain or deport a U.S. citizen. However, applying for naturalization can be risky for some individuals because it can instigate immigration enforcement. This concern has increased following President Trump’s February 28, 2025 NTA Memo. The ILRC, NIPNLG, CLINIC, and the Ready to Stay collaborative wrote a practice advisory summarizing the most common reasons why USCIS may deny an N-400, providing guidance for ways to screen and avoid an N-400 denial and removal proceedings, and discussing immigration relief options in immigration court.
This practice advisory provides background on the disability waiver of the English and civics requirement for naturalization and describes the June 2025 revisions to the USCIS Policy Manual (PM) on the submission and review of disability waivers. The revised guidance in the PM applies to applications filed on or after the publication date of June 13, 2025. Overall, the PM revisions signal a change in tone that assumes fraud in the disability waiver process is frequent and encourages increased scrutiny by USCIS adjudicators.
Recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) published a memo listing out its priorities for civil enforcement cases. In that memo, the DOJ states that it will be focusing on denaturalization cases. This memo - along with statements made by administration officials and members of congress - has sparked a lot of attention on denaturalization and questions about who could be denaturalized. This has caused a lot of fear and uncertainty in communities, but denaturalization is not as straightforward as you might think.
ILRC submitted a comment to USCIS in response to the revisions published on June 13, 2025 to guidance for disability waivers of the English and civics requirement for naturalization. ILRC opposed the 2025 revisions as they rely on a false narrative that fraud is rampant in the disability waiver process.