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Immigrant Organizations Denounce New Citizenship Test

The Jordan commission's report emphasized "effective Americanization of new immigrants, that is the cultivation of a shared commitment to the American values of liberty, democracy and equal opportunity," including policies to "help newcomers learn to speak, read and write English effectively."

The new citizenship test will be administered to all applicants for naturalization nationwide starting in January 2008. However, beginning this winter, at least 5,000 people in 10 cities will take part in a voluntary testing program featuring the new questions.

The number of potential questions will be narrowed from 125 to 100 during the pilot program. To pass, an immigrant must correctly answer six of 10 questions asked.

But more than 220 immigrant organizations, led by the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, have signed a letter to USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez denouncing the new test, which they worry will make it harder for "poorer legal immigrants with less English and less education" to win U.S. citizenship.

"Already immigrants must pass a citizenship test that many native-born Americans could not pass," say groups that include the National Council of La Raza, National Immigration Forum, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the United Farm Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Read the entire article in the Washington Times.

Personally I could care less what the National Council of La Raza thinks. This is a racist organization with dreams of conquest via immigration. I'm not too impressed by labor unions either.

Yes, I'm sure the test is difficult. And why shouldn't it be? It's not a trivial thing to forsake the land of your birth and ask to become a citizen of another country. Immigrants to any country that ask to be accepted as citizens of that country should be serious about their intentions, and they should demonstrate it.

Even so, it's not like we're requiring that they be "A" students. We're actually holding them to a lower standard than John Kerry holds President Bush. We're asking that they achieve a 60 percent score. 60% doesn't even rate a "D" grade in school. Even John Kerry did better than that in college.

These immigrant organizations complain that the test is so difficult that many native-born Americans couldn't pass it. That's too bad. It's not a reason to condemn the test. Instead it's a reason to condemn the education system in America. The fact that our schools are turning out mush-minded graduates that haven't got a clue what citizenship means is a travesty.

It shows that the education "establishment" in this country has its priorities screwed up. It's more important to the NEA to teach kids how to put condoms on vegetables and to ensure that little girls know how to have abortions than it is to teach American History, or the foundational principles on which our country is built.

It's more important that children in our schools be protected from any possible exposure to Christianity than it is to teach them what the Constitution says, or what the Declaration of Independence says. It's more important that schoolchildren be taught how to be Muslims in the name of "tolerance" and "diversity" than it is to teach children to understand that current events in the world are about more than "Why Mommy is a Democrat".

It shouldn't serve as an excuse for relaxing the standards we hold foreigners that aspire to citizenship in our country to. If a person immigrates to a country with the intention of becoming a citizen of that country, I think it's reasonable that they be expected to learn the history of the country, the country's laws and to assimilate into the country's culture. Why else should they be granted citizenship?

When we give an immigrant a chance to become a citizen, we are offering them the chance to become one of us. We are granting them a rare and special privilege. Every immigrant that I know that has taken the test and become a citizen knows deep in their heart what it means to be a citizen of the United States, and they're proud of it! Rightfully so!

If the citizenship test is hard, that's the price that immigrants must pay to become citizens of our country. If "many Americans" can't pass the same test, it's an indictment of our public schools, not an indication that it's "too hard".

Being an American citizen is a blessing, and a wonderful privilege. Some of us, by the grace of God have been given it as a birthright, and it's a terrible shame that so many of them don't appreciate it. I thank God that I was taught what it means to be an American. And I thank God that many, many immigrants to this country also know what it means and are willing to work to earn that wonderful privilege.

Anyone that would cheapen that is beneath my contempt. That includes the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the National Council of La Raza, the National Immigration Forum, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the United Farm Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

To every naturalized citizen of the United States that has worked hard to attain that goal I have two things to say: Congratulations, and Welcome Home!

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