Last December, a 60 year-old Dominican immigrant named Carlos Gomez applied to become a U.S. citizen. His attorney, Angela Fernandez, expected it to go quickly because he's lived here for 17 years and became a legal permanent resident with a green card in 2011. But in June, six months later, the process was delayed.
"They were asking for the court transcripts of a dismissed case," she said, incredulously, adding she'd never seen this before with such an applicant.
Gomez had been charged five years ago with illegal sports betting in New Jersey, but the case was dismissed. He said the extra wait caused him a lot of stress. His right leg was amputated several years ago due to an infection he said he caught at the grocery store where he worked. He had paid Social Security taxes while he was working; becoming a citizen would allow him to collect disability benefits.
"The delay is difficult for me," he explained. "I no have an income."
Gomez obtained his court records and finally became a U.S. citizen earlier this month. He said he's grateful because he's been living on food stamps and public assistance. But he's not the only legal immigrant struggling with a longer processing time for naturalization.
Citizenship applications take approximately eight months on average to process, according the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Many attorneys in New York say that's two to four times as long as they took as recently as 2016, meaning immigrants are waiting longer to be eligible to vote and to sponsor family members. One advocacy group called this a "second wall." Fernandez, who is supervising attorney and executive director of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, said she's got clients who have been waiting almost a year for approval.
"We think these delays are being done on purpose," she stated, noting the delays started after President Donald Trump took office. "Because it's just part of this general political philosophy around immigrants being dangerous."
Katie Tichacek, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the delays are caused in part by a 24 percent increase in naturalization applications since last fiscal year. She said the agency is adding extra overtime hours and filling vacancies.
Tichacek also acknowledged more applicants are being interviewed since President Trump signed an executive order in March to protect the nation from foreign terrorists.
"As such, the agency is being called on to do more of what it does best — interview, detect fraud and make a fair and accurate adjudication."
The surge in citizenship applications is widely attributed to the new Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants. Attorney Neena Dutta said more people want to become citizens now to protect themselves.
"People who felt very comfortable for many years as green card holders have started to get concerned, they have seen issues come up with family members," she explained. She said many of her clients have had to provide additional documentation, such as tax returns, during routine interviews for citizenship.
Immigration lawyer Edain Butterfield said it's also taking longer for immigrants applying for green cards, or legal permanent residency — the first step toward becoming a citizen. She said she has five clients who have been waiting for more than a year to be granted green cards.
Michael Mandel, another New York based immigration attorney, questioned whether the slow-down is deliberate.
"It’s also having the effect of making immigrants question whether they even want to apply in the first place," he said. "And so all of this has the effect and has the result of limiting immigration without having to go through Congress and change the laws."
Correction: An earlier version of this story said USCIS is conducting more interviews and requesting more documentation under the executive order from March. However, a spokeswoman said the agency cannot confirm it's been asking for additional documentation because the executive order itself makes no mention of that.