Democrats Hope To Create Thousands Of New Voters With Rush To Naturalize Immigrants

Gaining thousands of new voters before the election could be the motivation behind the drive to clear the backlog of naturalization applications.

“They won’t admit that” Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told Fox News Digital when asked if gaining voters could be behind a push to naturalize more U.S. citizens. “They will describe it as naturalization is the ultimate goal and we want people to become Americans… but it’s always a political tactic to get more citizens with the assumption they will vote for you.”

Ries’ comments come after a New York Times report last week revealed that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USIS) is processing naturalization applications at speeds not seen in roughly a decade, taking an average of 4.9 months to process applications in the first nine months of the current fiscal year.

The pace is far faster than processing speeds of just three years ago, when it took roughly 11.5 months for an applicant to gain U.S. citizenship. Overall, the current pace of new naturalizations has not been seen since 2013 and 2014, the New York Times reported.

So far, 3.3 million immigrants have become naturalized citizens since President Biden took office, the report noted, pointing out that Biden shortened the application to 14 pages instead of the previous 20 and made it easier for low-income applicants to qualify for discounts on the $710 fee to apply.

The report also noted that the increased pace of naturalizations could play a role in this year’s election, with thousands of new potential voters becoming citizens every week.

Read full story at Fox News.