B was born in Mexico and had lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years before finally deciding to apply for U.S. citizenship this winter. MPR News is identifying him only by his first initial out of concern about immigration enforcement.
He built a life in the U.S., raised three children, and became a lawful permanent resident. But until recently, he says he never felt urgency to become a citizen.
“I didn’t see the need. I mean, if I can work and live here legally, that’s enough,” B said.
That changed this winter during the ICE surge in Minnesota.
B says for months, fear shaped nearly every part of his daily life. He even had to close his used car business after customers stopped coming in.
“Well it’s been the toughest time in my life,” he recalls.
At his current job, he says supervisors told him to hide in the back when ICE agents were nearby. And eventually, he started carrying a GPS tracker hidden in his shoes so his family could find him in case he was detained.
Now 55 years old, B applied for citizenship for the first time just months ago. He started to worry his legal permanent residency might no longer protect him from deportation.
Past year has brought significant changes to application process
Unlike B, immigration advocates say that fear, combined with policy changes and processing delays — is discouraging some eligible immigrants from applying for citizenship at all.
At the International Institute of Minnesota in St. Paul, staff help immigrants navigate the naturalization process, from legal screenings to English and civics classes.
Corleen Smith, the organization’s director of immigration and anti-trafficking services, says the past year has brought changes unlike anything she has seen in more than two decades of immigration work.
“We are definitely seeing a decrease in people applying,” Smith said. “People are just discouraged from applying.”
Smith says the organization typically helps submit between 50 and 70 citizenship applications each month. Recently, she says, that number has dropped closer to 20 to 25 applications a month — a decline of roughly 50 percent.
The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota says it is seeing similar trends. The organization reported 108 naturalization intake cases between Jan. 1 and mid-May of 2025. During the same period this year, that number dropped to 42.
According to federal data cited by the New Americans Campaign, more than 840,000 people became U.S. citizens nationwide in 2025. The total number of naturalization applications filed and approved that year was slightly lower than in 2024, while denial rates increased by almost 15 percent.
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center, which leads the initiative, also reports a sharp drop in both applications and adjudications in November and December 2025. It attributes the decline to recent policy changes that have added new barriers and made the naturalization process more difficult to access. The organization warns these trends could lead to significantly fewer new citizens in 2026.
Applying for citizenship has always involved challenges. Applicants must complete lengthy forms detailing years of personal history, pass background checks and pay filing fees that can exceed $700. Many must also pass English and civics exams.
“There’s always kind of those normal hurdles,” Smith said. “Answering history and government questions, being able to read and write in English … the legal process itself.”
But attorneys and advocates say the current political climate has introduced new fears – even for immigrants with straightforward cases and no criminal history.
“What I’m really hearing from immigrants and other clients that are approaching us talking about citizenship is they don’t want to be on the radar of this administration,” Smith said. “Despite not having any red flags, any issues, they just don’t want to have to go through the increased scrutiny.”
Immigration attorney Peter Nagell says while some of his clients are choosing not to interact with the immigration system, other clients who would previously have completed the citizenship process on their own are now seeking attorneys because they fear making mistakes or attracting scrutiny.
“So we are seeing more, in some ways, more straightforward applicants seeking legal assistance. But we certainly are seeing people who just would rather not interact with the immigration system, even if they’re very clearly eligible to pursue some kind of benefit, whether that's citizenship or anything else,” Nagell said.
Delays, stricter scrutiny and changing policies
Immigration advocates say processing delays and policy changes are contributing to those fears.
The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota says naturalization cases that once moved from filing to oath ceremony within a few months are now commonly taking nine months or longer. Some applicants interviewed last year are still waiting for final decisions or oath ceremonies.
Advocates also say immigration officers are applying greater scrutiny to applications involving fee waivers or disability exemptions.
Last year, some applicants reportedly received unannounced home visits from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers after requesting medical waivers or fee waivers. During those visits, applicants were questioned about employment, income, public benefits and their ability to speak English.
“We haven’t seen home visits since last fall,” the Immigrant Law Center said in a statement. “Applicants do express concern about enforcement actions during screening calls and often ask if it is the right time to apply for citizenship.”
Smith says new federal guidance has also made medical waivers more difficult to obtain.
“There’s been some new guidance that essentially gives immigration officers more opportunities to deny applicants that are requesting medical waivers,” she said.
Those waivers are intended for applicants whose disabilities or medical conditions make it impossible to complete the English or civics requirements.
According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a revised citizenship test introduced for applications filed after Oct. 20, 2025 expanded the civics question bank and increased the number of questions applicants must answer correctly to pass.
“The question bank has expanded from 100 to 128 items, and during the interview, officers now ask up to 20 questions instead of 10,” Cristina Santiago Ruitort, an American Immigration Lawyers Association member, said in a statement to MPR News. “To pass, applicants must correctly answer at least 12 questions. While the test remains oral, the new content places a much heavier emphasis on federalism, recent constitutional interpretations, and civic responsibilities.”
Nagell says attorneys are also seeing broader changes in how immigration officers evaluate “good moral character,” a legal standard required for citizenship.
“In the past, if somebody had no prior issues or encounters with immigration or law enforcement and they had been living and working in the United States, it’s sort of presumed that they were a person of good moral character,” Nagell said. “Now they have indicated that they are going to really put that onus more on the applicant to establish that.”
Advocates say applicants are also hearing reports that the English reading and writing portions of the citizenship test have become more difficult and that officers are more strict about spelling and comprehension.
The strongest protection — but still a difficult choice
Advocates and attorneys stress that citizenship remains the strongest legal protection available to immigrants who qualify.
“Anyone that essentially is not a citizen has the potential for removal,” Smith said. “Citizenship is really the ultimate security and stability.”
But attorneys also acknowledge that deciding whether to apply has become emotionally complicated for many immigrants.
“There is a lot of fear in the community,” Nagell said. “Although I do caution people to take it seriously and to ensure eligibility and understand any potential risks, I do also routinely put things into context for people and say, ‘Look, you are clearly entitled to this.’”
Nagell encourages immigrants considering citizenship to seek advice from licensed attorneys or accredited legal organizations rather than relying on misinformation or social media.
“There is both great information on social media and also distorted and incorrect information,” he said. “Consuming information carefully is important.”
After 20 years as a green card holder, B says that even with legal status, fear of deportation outweighed the fear of interacting with the legal system during a time of uncertainty.
“Being with my children, safety, peace. I’m applying for jobs. I have a job right now, but I want to restart my business,” he said.
He says music and dancing have helped him regain a sense of normalcy after months of fear and uncertainty. He especially enjoys live cover bands playing music from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, and says he tries to go out dancing every weekend — sometimes Friday, Saturday and even Sunday if there’s a show.
Now that his citizenship paperwork has been submitted, he says life has slowly started to feel more stable again. While other personal challenges remain, he says things are improving little by little.
For now, B waits to learn whether he will become a U.S. citizen. He says the process has already given him a new perspective on how fragile his sense of security can feel, even after decades in the country.
