A Citizenship Test Designed for Failure
Trump’s harder exam isn’t about civics. It’s about power—and intimidation of people who already did everything by the book.
WASHINGTON — They call it a test, but it feels more like a dare. Trump’s people want immigrants to memorize 128 flashcards about Alexander Hamilton and the 10th Amendment, as if knowing Dwight Eisenhower’s résumé makes you more American than raising kids, paying rent, and keeping the lights on. The truth is, the only people failing America’s citizenship test are the ones writing it.
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They said it was about fraud. They always do. Fraud, loyalty, attachment to the Constitution. All the words that sound noble in a marble-lined hearing room but ring hollow when they’re used to keep a janitor from Mount Pleasant or a nurse from El Paso from calling themselves American.
Now the Trump people are back with their trick deck of flashcards. Not enough to be here five years, working and paying rent, keeping your head down when ICE vans patrol the block. Not enough to raise kids who recite the Pledge of Allegiance louder than the principal at morning assembly. No, you’ve got to answer 128 questions, twice as many as before, about Alexander Hamilton and Dwight Eisenhower and the 10th Amendment—while the real Americans, the ones born here, couldn’t tell you which war Eisenhower fought in or what the 10th Amendment even says if you spotted them the words “states’ rights.”
I once saw a cab driver in Jackson Heights sit at his kitchen table, English book open, a paper cup of bitter coffee by his elbow, drilling himself on questions like he was memorizing the plays in the Super Bowl. He could tell you who wrote the Federalist Papers. He could tell you the year women got the right to vote. He could tell you what Ben Franklin was famous for. But he couldn’t tell you why the government seemed hellbent on reminding him that he would never quite belong.
That’s the cruelty baked into this new test. It isn’t about knowledge. It’s about intimidation. It’s about telling people who already waited years, who already paid thousands, who already cleared every background check and fingerprint, that the finish line just moved another mile down the road.
The naturalization pass rate hovers around 90 percent. Ninety percent. Better than the rate for kids in Iowa civics classes or senators bumbling through cable news interviews. But the Trump crew isn’t looking at numbers—they’re looking at optics. They want the photo op of toughness, of a president who makes immigrants sweat, as if sweat wasn’t already the only down payment most of them could afford on this country.
The new citizenship test is the same old story: raise the bar, shrink the circle, and pretend it’s about patriotism. In reality, it’s about power. Because the fewer new Americans who get sworn in, the fewer voices in the voting booth who might decide they’ve had enough of this nonsense.
You want to know what love of country looks like? It’s a dishwasher in Chicago who studies civics until midnight after his shift. It’s a home health aide in Miami practicing the English word “democracy” on the bus. It’s a father in Fresno teaching his kid the branches of government because he’s still scared he’ll forget when the officer asks.
And if you can’t see that, then maybe it’s not the immigrants who need a harder test. It’s us. Because the truth is, the only people failing America’s citizenship test are the ones writing it.
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Migrant Insider always shows so much heart 💓 thank you for writing
I’m a naturalized citizen. Many immigrants and undocumented migrants that have lived in America years love this country beyond reason. And what is happening now is breaking our hearts. We are not surprised but certainly disappointed. There is the stamp of cruelty on all this regime touches and they are so proud of it.