U.S. citizenship test to get tougher

As in previous term, Trump moves to make it more difficult to become naturalized.

- KEVIN RECTOR

GARY CORONADO For The Times CALEB Martinez with his mother, Alma, after her naturalization ceremony Wednesday in Riverside.

The Trump administration moved again Wednesday to make it harder to gain U.S. citizenship, announcing a slate of changes to the core civics test that immigrants must pass to be naturalized.

The changes would expand the number of questions immigrants need to be prepared to answer and increase the number of questions they must answer correctly in order to pass.

The changes, announced as pending in the Federal Register, would largely revert the test to a similarly longer and harder version that was introduced in 2020 during President Trump's first term but was swiftly rolled back under President Biden in 2021.

The shift follows other Trump administration changes to the process by which U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials determine whether prospective citizens are qualified, including enhanced assessments of their “moral character” and whether they ascribe to any “anti-American” beliefs, and intense checks into their community ties and social media networks.

It also comes amid a broader crackdown on undocumented immigration and what Trump has said will be the largest "mass deportation" in U.S. history.

That effort has been heavily centered in the Los Angeles region, to the consternation of many Democratic leaders and immigration advocacy organizations.

The new naturalization test, like the short-lived 2020 version, would draw from 128 possible questions and require prospective citizens to answer 12 out of 20 questions correctly in order to pass.

Under the current test, which dates to 2008, there are 100 possible questions, and prospective citizens must answer six out of 10 correctly.