President Donald Trump's latest move to restrict immigration from 18 nations is being widely criticized by advocates for leaving several newcomers in limbo.
After two National Guard troops were shot in Washington, D.C., Trump announced that his administration would be restricting immigration from countries such as Afghanistan, Haiti, and Syria. The Daily Beast reported on Sunday that this move caused several newcomers to have their "oath ceremonies" cancelled, which is the last step in the naturalization process.
“There is no time frame—nobody knows how long this is going to be,” said immigration lawyer Teresa Coles-Davila, according to the report. “Literally, no one knows what is happening.”
Following the National Guard shooting, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow issued a policy directive for all newcomers to be "vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible," the outlet reported. That directive also prevented agency staff from making final determinations about someone's immigration status.
Project Citizenship, a nonprofit that works with newcomers in Massachusetts and New England, told the outlet that 21 of their clients had their oath ceremonies cancelled following the shooting.
“One of our clients said that she had gone to her oath ceremony because she hadn’t received the cancellation notice in time,” said Gail Breslow, Project Citizenship's executive director. “She showed up as scheduled, and when she arrived, officers were asking everyone what country they were from, and if they said a certain country, they were told to step out of line and that their oath ceremonies were canceled.”
“People are devastated and they’re frightened,” Breslow added. “People were plucked out of line. They didn’t cancel the whole ceremony.”
