We see a decline in people getting approval to become US citizens in 2025: NPR

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Johanan Rivera considered becoming a U.S. citizen for years, but it was never a priority. Rivera, an immigrant with family still in Mexico, was concerned that naturalization would make him feel like he was losing his “Mexicanness”, and he was content to remain in the United States as a permanent resident.

But in February 2025, after 15 years in the United States, Rivera finally applied for naturalization. About a year later he became an American citizen.

“The second the Trump administration came into office, and (my partner and I) wanted more certainty about being able to stay in the same country,” he told NPR in an interview on the day of his March naturalization ceremony at the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia. “It is the result of political change that has led to this process.”

Newly released data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that processes citizenship applications, shows that 2025 was marked by an uptick in applications for naturalization and a decline in people being approved to become citizens.

Immigration experts said the trends show in real time how President Trump’s restrictive immigration policies, ramping up deportation efforts and increased scrutiny have affected people at the tail end of their legal immigration journey.

While 2025 began with high rates of citizenship application submissions and decisions, by the end of the year fewer immigrants were applying to become citizens — and even fewer were granted access to this final milestone, according to the data. The downward trend in recent months reflects declining confidence in the US immigration system, experts and former officials said.

“The fear is widespread,” said Felicia Escobar Carrillo, former USCIS chief of staff under the Biden administration. “I think people will think twice about applying.”

During the first few months of Trump’s second term, the administration approved a record-high number of naturalizations. At the peak of 2025, 88,488 applications were approved in a month – the highest number since USCIS began tracking month-by-month naturalization data in 2022.

But by January this year, that number had dropped to 32,862, the lowest since USCIS began tracking that data.

The decline in approval for citizenship comes amid a natural uptick in applicants. At the peak of 2025, 169,159 people applied for naturalization in October. The very next month only 41,478 people applied, which was the lowest figure of the year.

“What we see from this administration is, at a very high level, an effort to redefine who an American is,” said Margie O’Herron, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. “To give someone citizenship is to give someone American status. It’s an effort to control it.”

Nicole Melaku is the executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, which campaigns for immigrant inclusion. He said that the message of the administration encourages immigrants to pursue legal status – but the declining numbers of naturalizations present a different story.

“We’re starting to see the manifestation of data that proves this administration is slowing down or denying opportunity to these people,” he said.

USCIS told NPR it is pausing adjudication on applications for immigrants from high-risk countries and implementing more screening and vetting processes.

“This includes reimplementing the 2020 naturalization civics test for 2025, strengthening English language requirements, screening social media for anti-American activities, and reinstating neighborhood checks to ensure applicants are of good moral character and attachment to the Constitution,” USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser said in a statement to NPR.

“USCIS will not take shortcuts in the adjudication process.”

The race to become a citizen of Trump’s America

Theresa Cardinal Brown, an immigration consultant and an immigration fellow at Cornell Law School and the George W. Bush Presidential Center, said political factors may have prompted some people to apply for naturalization as early as 2025, especially as Trump campaigned on a promise to end mass deportations. From February to April, 270,290 people applied to become US citizens.

“People who want to secure their place and make sure they won’t face deportation may want to pursue their citizenship,” Brown said. “Maybe they’ve been eligible for a long time, but they didn’t think there was any urgency to it. Suddenly something happened that meant, ‘Maybe I should go ahead and do this.'”

This was the driving force behind Rivera’s decision to naturalize.

“There are so many things happening in the country that I felt just having a residence is not enough,” he said. “(U.S. citizenship) gives flexibility and security.”

During the same period, the Trump administration approved a record number of new citizens. More people were naturally infected in each month in March, April and May 2025 than in any other month through 2024, when Joe Biden was in office.

However, the second half of 2025 saw instability in both naturalization applications and approvals.

in August, USCIS announced It would also introduce more rigorous assessments to ensure that each new citizen has “good moral character”, including “greater emphasis on positive qualities or contributions” and “greater scrutiny of unworthy behavior and actions”.

In September, the agency shared plans for a longer and tougher citizenship test. this also Neighborhood checks set upA policy largely unused since 1991 in which immigration officers visit the homes and neighborhoods of people hoping for naturalization to evaluate the individuals’ contributions to their communities. Immigration experts and former USCIS officials said this level of investigation takes time and is likely to delay approval.

“USCIS has taken an ‘America First’ approach, restoring order, security, integrity, and accountability to the U.S. immigration system, ensuring it serves the nation’s interests and protects and prioritizes Americans over foreign nationals,” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in a statement. Statement promoting these and other changes.

Cornell Law School’s Brown said that these announcements may have prompted some otherwise hesitant people to naturally adopt these rules before they took effect or in anticipation of further rules. In October, 169,159 people applied to be naturalized, a four-year record.

“So all those kinds of changes might motivate people — if they think they have a better chance under the current rules — to get involved before the rules change,” he said.

But October saw a sharp decline in the number of people approved by USCIS: approvals dropped from more than 70,000 to just 58,692. The number of people approved continued to decline each month until the end of the year.

Overall processing also declined: the total number of completions (or approvals and rejections together) by month increased from 78,379 in September 2025 to 37,832 by January 2026.

The decline can be partly explained by restrictions imposed on the processing of citizenship applications. The administration halted immigration processes, including naturalization, for people from one of the 39 countries, as well as people with travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority, under a series of restrictions.

The ban came after an Afghan civilian was accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, DC, in late November. One of the guard members died of his injuries the next day. The suspect was later charged with murder.

opting out of naturalization

By November, the number of people applying for naturalization had dropped to 41,478. 42,569 applied in December; In January, that number increased slightly to 46,385 – still about 50% less than the previous year.

USCIS declined to comment on why fewer people are applying for naturalization.

Aurora, Colo. Giannina Horton, a city council member in the U.S., said that many immigrants eligible for naturalization in her city are now choosing not to go through the process. Trump has portrayed Aurora as a city”Burdened by migrant business” And Mass deportations are needed. Horton said in Aurora, this message has undermined local people’s trust in the US immigration system.

Horton said, “There is a sense that we are in a political environment where it is unsafe for many immigrants to engage with federal agencies. Whether that is true or perceived, it is still a huge influencing factor.” “Do I really want to put my name on a list where I could be targeted, because it’s already on some other list that could potentially be targeted, right? So there’s a risk assessment that people are doing in real time.”

Some immigration experts said the decline in the number of people applying for naturalization is another sign that Trump’s immigration actions are changing the US immigration system, including naturalization.

In December and continuing through 2026, some were shocked to learn that they had been refused Entry Among their scheduled citizenship ceremonies: the final step of the immigration process, where new citizens take the pledge of allegiance to the United States.

O’Herron of the Brennan Center for Justice said, “What we’re seeing is that what this administration is doing is targeting even people who have followed all the rules. The administration is changing the rules for those people.” “That unpredictability creates a real sense of fear.”

“So inserting yourself into the system may create some vulnerabilities that lying idle would not,” he said.

Daniel Chigirinsky, originally from Hungary, has applied to become a US citizen in the spring of 2025. When he was in the middle of his citizenship process, he became scared when he read about changes to naturalization.

“Coming in for the interview was a horrible experience,” said Chigirinsky, who became a U.S. citizen in March. “And I, for one thing, know I have nothing to worry about.”