The number of immigrants applying for citizenship has increased this year compared to last, however, it is not breaking records, according to a recent Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.
While a swell of naturalization drives and initiatives targeting legal permanent residents in the U.S. to become citizens and vote against Donald Trump have increased the number of naturalization applications, the level is still lower than years past when impending fee increases drove more immigrants to seek naturalization.
Pew reports that from October 2015 – June 2016, 718,430 immigrants applied for naturalization, a 26 percent increase over the same time last year. In advance to the 2012 presidential election, the number of naturalization applications increase 19 percent over the year prior. Election years do not always see increases in naturalization, however, in FY 2008, for example, the number of applications decreased by 62 percent compared with the previous year due in part to the record setting level of FY 2007.
Indeed, the largest increase in applications filed — since the government began tracking them — occurred in FY 2007 in advance of an application fee increase from $330 to $595, Pew reports. During that year nearly 1.4 million applications for naturalization were filed, an 89 percent increase over the year prior.
After FY 2007, the second largest spike in applications occurred in the 1990s when each year from FY 1995 to FY 1998, at least 900,000 applied for citizenship, according to Pew. FY 1997, however, captured the record with 1.4 million applications.
Several laws passed around that time, Pew noted, likely leading to the increased level of applications in the 1990s, including the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 which granted amnesty to 2.7 million illegal immigrants, as well as laws passed in the 1990s restricting welfare and other benefits for non-citizens.
While the level of naturalization applications is not at a record high, the new U.S. citizens could have an impact on the presidential race, especially in battleground states. According to Pew, Hispanics and Asians born in the U.S. generally have lower turn out rates than their foreign-born naturalized counterparts.
“In 2012, naturalized-immigrant Hispanics had a voter turnout rate of 54%, compared with a 46% turnout rate among U.S.-born Hispanics,” Pew reports. “Among Asians, the turnout rate for naturalized immigrants was 49%, compared with 43% for the U.S. born. (Voter turnout among white immigrants that year was 55%, compared with 64% among U.S.-born whites. Among blacks, turnout was 62% among immigrants and 67% among the U.S. born.)”
As Pew notes, this is not the end of the story, there are still three more months to account for this fiscal year and the application data still has room for increases. However, it is unlikely that those new applicants will become citizens in time to register and vote in the 2016 cycle. Additionally there is also an upcoming naturalization fee increase schedule for October 1.
