The Council alleges that the administration’s new policy will make it more difficult for thousands of naturalized citizens to register to vote immediately upon obtaining citizenship.
A Louisiana section of the National Council of Jewish Women has filed a lawsuit challenging a newly-introduced Trump administration rule that prohibits nonprofit organizations from helping naturalized U.S. citizens register to vote.
According to Democracy Docket, the lawsuit calls the policy part of a “broader effort to ensure that new Americans cannot exert their democratic will on the nation.”
Democracy Docket notes that, in August, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced an abrupt change to existing policy.
Since 2011, nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations have been allowed to help new citizens register to vote. This assistance is typically offered only after the naturalized citizen has take the Oath of Allegiance to the United States, thereby completing their citizenship ceremony.
However, in August, USCIS announced that groups will no longer be permitted to be provide these services at naturalization ceremonies.
“This policy change surgically targets naturalized citizens and their exercise of the franchise,” says the lawsuit, filed on behalf of the New Orleans section of the National Council of Jewish Woman. “On information and belief, administrative naturalization ceremonies—where, by definition, the people that NGOs assist are new Americans—are the only settings from which NGOs have been categorically barred from helping people register.”
The Council alleges that the administration’s new policy will make it more difficult for thousands of naturalized citizens to register to vote immediately upon obtaining citizenship.
“For the NGOs who focus on registering new voters, the Voter Assistance Ban eliminates the single best—and arguably, the only—option for finding and registering these voters en masse,” the lawsuit states. “Outside of rare judicial ceremonies, there is no equivalent place where naturalized citizens are likely to gather—and thus, no straightforward way to find new Americans to help them register.”
In court documents, attorneys for the Council claimed that the policy is part of a broader Trump administration’s objective: making it more difficult for new Americans to participate in upcoming elections.
“Fueled by hostility to the changing electorate, the ban on voter assistance at naturalization ceremonies is one prong in the Defendants’ and other officials’ broader effort to ensure that new Americans cannot exert their democratic will on the nation,” the lawsuit assets.
The National Council of Jewish Women has, separately, announced its opposition to a proposal submitted by America First Legal Foundation, which is asking the Election Assistance Commission to require first-time voters to show a U.S. passport or other proof of citizenship before registering to vote.
Sources
Lawsuit Blasts Trump’s Bid to Keep New Citizens From Registering to Vote
NCJW Opposes Proposal to Add Obstacles to Voter Registration
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