Trump's team plans harder test for U.S. citizenship — and more leeway to reject applicants

• The essay plan is emerging days after administration officials said they would apply increased scrutiny on whether citizenship applicants meet a standard for "good moral character."

Zoom in: Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), told Axios he believes the Biden administration made standards too lax, leading the government to revoke some citizenship approvals granted previously.

• Edlow said he's already referred multiple cases for denaturalization to the Department of Justice. More referrals are coming, he said, but he wouldn't say how many.
• In fiscal 2024, the final year of President Biden's term, more than 818,000 people were sworn in as U.S. citizens — up from 625,000 in 2020, the last year of Trump's first term.

Edlow said the current citizenship exam is too easy to pass.

• "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," he said, as opposed to the current 10-question civics test.
• Edlow also envisions an essay question on a subject such as, "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."

What to watch: The timeline for rolling out the new test isn't set, Edlow said, but he hopes to make changes "to the extent in the next year that I can."

The latest: USCIS, which oversees most visas, work authorizations, green card and citizenship applications, is already reverting to the 2020 version of the citizenship exam, which administration officials say was made easier to pass under President Biden.

• The agency also has issued new guidances for evaluating English language proficiency and determining "good moral character," an existing requirement in immigration law.

The moves add more discretion into the citizenship process and are likely to lead to more litigation against USCIS when citizenship applications are rejected, immigration attorneys say.

• Edlow said the new memo issued by the agency will help adjudicators make citizenship decisions.
• "In terms of looking at good moral character, there are a lot of factors. And it's absolutely not a clear black and white line as to what is or what is not considered good moral character," he said.
• "We are just giving additional examples so that the adjudicators know kind of what to be looking for that is absolutely within their jurisdiction."

• The memo explains that the law has defined what doesn't meet the standard for good moral character, and it now offers attributes that do. Those characteristics include: community involvement, family caregiving, education level and stable employment.

The other side: "They are opening the door for more biased decision-making based on arbitrary factors like race," said Eric Welsh, a partner at Reeves Immigration Law Group. "It's extremely dangerous and a slippery slope."

• "Our laws have never been friendly for criminals. They're subject to removal and always have been," Welsh added. "What we're seeing is enforcement [against] non-criminals."
• The main remedy for a challenge a decision is to sue the government, moving the case from immigration court under the executive branch to the judicial branch.

Zoom out: Edlow wants USCIS to do more to combat what he sees as fraud in the citizenship and legal immigration processes.

• "We are a law enforcement agency. We are making a law enforcement decision when it comes to immigration enforcement, that is what we are trying to do," Edlow said.
• "The problem is that this runs afoul of the law," said Jeff Joseph, president of the American Immigration Layers Association. "The Homeland Security Act very clearly differentiates the enforcement functions of ICE and [Customs and Border Protection], and the benefits side of the house."