Immigrants Approved for Citizenship ‘Plucked Out’ of Line Moments Before Pledging Allegiance: Report

Immigrants were moments away from pledging allegiance to the United States in Boston — the final step in the long journey to becoming U.S. citizens — when government officials abruptly pulled them out of line, according to a new report.

The incident took place at Boston’s Faneuil Hall on Thursday, Dec. 4, according to reporting from WGBH, a National Public Radio member station.

As candidates who had already been approved for naturalization lined up to take the oath, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials informed some of them that they could not proceed because of their countries of origin, the outlet reported.

USCIS officials removed individuals from the line after the agency directed employees to halt all immigration applications for nationals from 19 countries already facing travel restrictions since June under a proclamation from President Donald Trump, per WGBH and NBC News. The administration has designated this list of largely African and Asian nations as high-risk.

Gail Breslow, executive director of Project Citizenship — a nonprofit that helps immigrants apply for citizenship — told WGBH that many of her clients received cancellation notices for oath ceremonies and other appointments, but in several cases, the warnings came too late.

“People were plucked out of line. They didn’t cancel the whole ceremony,” she said of the Dec. 4 event at Faneuil Hall, which WGBH noted mirrors similar scenes unfolding at naturalization ceremonies across the country.

One of the nonprofit’s clients, a Haitian woman who has held a green card since the early 2000s, went to her oath ceremony because she did not receive the cancellation notice in time, Breslow told the station.

Haiti is among the 19 countries facing full or partial restrictions, along with Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

“She showed up as scheduled, and when she arrived, officers were asking everyone what country they were from, and if they said a certain country, they were told to step out of line and that their oath ceremonies were canceled,” Breslow said of her client.

“People are devastated, and they’re frightened,” she added.

A different client asked Breslow why she had been singled out, a question the advocate said she struggled to answer. “One person was, you know, asking … what did I do wrong? Why is this happening to me? And, you know, needed to be reassured that it wasn’t anything she had done,” Breslow told WGBH. “This wasn’t her fault.”

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Sweet, executive director of MIRA Coalition — an organization that promotes “the rights and integration of immigrants and refugees” — described what happened before the Dec. 4 ceremony as “unnecessarily cruel.”

“As an immigrant takes the oath of citizenship, it’s a reflection and recognition of the tremendous sacrifice of time, energy and financial resources they have made in the hopes of becoming a full member of our community and nation,” Sweet told WGBH. “To have that final step canceled is unnecessarily cruel and does nothing to make this country a safer place.”

A USCIS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday, Dec. 7.

USCIS announced the halt on applications — affecting both green card and citizenship cases — in a memo issued Tuesday, Dec. 2, according to NBC News.

“USCIS has considered that this direction may result in delay to the adjudication of some pending applications and has weighed that consequence against the urgent need for the agency to ensure that applicants are vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” the agency said, per the outlet.

“Ultimately, USCIS has determined that the burden of processing delays that will fall on some applicants is necessary and appropriate in this instance, when weighed against the agency’s obligation to protect and preserve national security,” the memo continued.

Addressing the halted applications in a statement to NBC News, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the Trump administration is “making every effort to ensure individuals becoming citizens are the best of the best.”

“Citizenship is a privilege, not a right,” the DHS spokesperson added. “We will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake.”