"In the first six months of 2025, we had at least double the amount of people reaching out by phone or email to me asking about joining our citizenship classes,"
"They can take away your residency, but you can't lose your citizenship,"
"Sometimes, if you are raising a family, it's on the list of things to do, but there are other things that bump ahead of it very easily when money is tight,"
"They told me that if you don't want those kind of issues, just become a citizen, and we will just say 'Welcome home,'"
President Trump's immigration enforcement has prompted many legal permanent residents to pursue U.S. citizenship, producing at least a doubling of inquiries to local naturalization classes in early 2025. The Immigration Institute of the Bay Area offers naturalization services in English and Spanish across several Bay Area locations, and eligibility is limited to legal permanent residents. Financial barriers include a $760 application fee that can delay naturalization for families with tight budgets. Some residents report enforcement encounters that motivated applications. The citizenship test now includes more civics questions and increased difficulty, requiring at least 12 correct answers out of 20.
Read at ABC7 San Francisco
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