SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The Trump administration is reviving a decades-old vetting process for U.S. citizenship applications, requiring neighborhood investigations that haven't been used since 1991.
The new policy, announced in a memo made public this week, will bring back "neighborhood investigations" as part of the citizenship application process. These checks involve speaking with people close to applicants, including employers, family members, and neighbors, to evaluate their moral character.
"Former employers, family members, or within the neighborhood, people that might know this person and ask questions and interview them about the person's moral character," said Saman Nasseri, an immigration attorney.
While moral character evaluations have always been part of the naturalization process, they were previously conducted differently. Since 1991, these neighborhood checks have been waived in favor of simpler background checks.
"Moral character checks were essentially waived. They just used whether or not you had convictions or arrests or any run-in with law enforcement to back up any moral character finding," Nasseri said.
The immigration attorney expressed concerns about the accuracy and fairness of these neighborhood interviews.
"Not everyone gets along with everyone, so you don't know what's going to happen. Even more so, you might get a neighbor who didn't know that someone wasn't a U.S. citizen, and they might have their feelings about immigration to begin with, and they can say something to sabotage this as well," Nasseri said.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says these checks will be conducted on a case-by-case basis and that people can submit this type of evidence proactively to help their case.
However, Nasseri warns the new requirement will likely add delays to an already backlogged immigration system.
"Who knows how long that's going to take right? There's only so many officers and there's so many people applying for citizenship," Nasseri said.
The neighborhood investigations represent a significant change to the naturalization process, which already includes background checks and interviews before applicants can attend a citizenship ceremony.
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