December 7, 2025 • 10 mins
This week, Latino USA shares an episode from our friends at LAist’s Imperfect Paradise about a new set of citizenship test guidelines. Recently, the federal government pushed out new guidelines for naturalization, changes that are reshaping what it means to become a U.S. American. LAist Higher Education Reporter Julia Barajas takes us inside a citizenship prep class at Pasadena City College to see how these new changes are playing out.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
What does it mean to be a US citizen?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The Fourteenth Amendment's citizenship clause is under scrutiny on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
If you're born here in the United States, then you are,
in fact an American citizen.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
The fundamental question of who gets US citizenship is in
fact evolving. On President Trump's first day in office, he
issued an executive order to end that right for the
children of people who are in the US illegally. Earlier
this year, we brought you a story about the Trump
Administration's efforts to end birthright citizenship.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
If this injunction wasn't maintained or they attempted to lift it,
these women would have stateless children.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Today on Latino USA, we're going to bring you an
episode from our friends at ELIST, the NPR station in
Los Angeles. This story looks at another side of the
citizenship issue, new naturalization guidelines for people hoping to become
US citizens. This is something that has become even more
difficult under the Trump administration. So we're going to play
(01:11):
some of the episode from the show In Perfect Paradise,
The show's host Nae la Moreno is going to speak
with reporter Julia Rajas about the changes playing out inside
a citizenship prep class at Pasadena City College.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
So, Julia, I'm curious, how did you start looking into
this story and what made you decide to explore a
citizenship class.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
So earlier this summer, our organization got a message from
a woman named Melissa Michaelson. She's an associate professor at
Pasadena City College and she also happens to be a
loyal LAS reader and listener, and she wrote in saying,
you know, right now, it feels very hard to be
teaching students from other countries who want to be citizens.
(01:56):
She said she didn't even feel comfortable recommending that they
make an appointment for their citizenship exams because she was
scared that ice might be there waiting for them.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
And who are typically the people who take Michaelson's class
at Pasadena City College aka PCC.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
They're all adults raging in age, so some of them
could be like in their like early twenties, some of
them are like almost in their sixties. And they tend
to come from countries like China, Russia, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand,
and many parts of Latin America. One of the things
we talked about is how some of those countries don't
have democratic governments. So for some students, learning about things
like the right to vote for public officials and the
(02:33):
ability to wag in on issues is all new.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
This is democracy, So the power is within them. We
just need to harness it and power in numbers and
know your rights, know what to do, know your history,
know what happened before, build upon that, change it and
good luck. That's that's what I hope more students get
(02:59):
out of it, on top of becoming an American. Set
of them.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Julia, what do we know about who takes this test
on a wider scale?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, So we have some data from the twenty twenty
four fiscal year. That's the last full year of the
Biden administration, and in that year, the country welcomed more
than eight hundred eighteen thousand new citizens. And what I
learned is that California is home to nearly one in
five of people seeking citizenships, about eighteen percent, and the
(03:30):
LA area is actually one of the most popular areas
of residency, behind New York and Miami. The naturalization process
has always involved many steps, but there are three big
basic parts. One is that students have to demonstrate that
they can read, write, and speak in English. They also
have to pass a civics test that delves into US
history and how our government functions. And then they have
(03:52):
to clear like a big background check where the US
Citizenship and Immigration Services determines whether they are fit to
be citizens, and the Trump administration has introduced a number
of changes to that process in recent months. In the past,
applicants would just submit this like fourteen page application that
asked a bunch of questions like have you ever you know,
(04:14):
participated or assisted with things like killing or trying to
kill anyone else? Or have you prevented someone from practicing
their religion? Things like this that determine someone's moral character.
But that's gonna change. Being forward and to learn more
about these changes and how they're impacting others, I spoke
with Julie Mitchell. She is the legal director at the
Central American Resource Center and the center also provides citizenship classes.
(04:37):
She noted that the changes to a test were announced
in September of this year, which didn't really give educators
a whole lot of time to adjust their lesson plans.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
So we're going to have citizenship teachers across the country
kind of trying to scramble to be able to quickly
change developed teaching materials to a apps to a new.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Tast and tell us about the naturalization test, like what
kinds of questions are usually on it?
Speaker 4 (05:08):
The questions that are usually on it are things like
what does the Bill of Rights protect? Or like what
part of the federal government rights laws? Questions that some
of us might or might not know the answers too.
But starting this week, actually students will have to be
prepared to answer more questions correctly during their Civics test,
and they will be expected to learn the answers to
more questions too, so to explain what that I mean.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
It's like.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
In the past, students had to learn the answers to
the bank of one hundred questions, and then to pass
their tests, they had to answer six out of ten
questions correctly like verbally. But moving forward, they have to
know the answers to one hundred and twenty eight questions
and they'll have to answer twelve out of twenty questions correctly.
(05:50):
The federal government has also announced that moving forward, when
federal officials make determinations about a candidate's quote unquote good
moral character, your absence of bad behavior is no longer enough.
They're going to have to actually also prove that they've
made positive contribution to society. And the government has also
announced that it's reintroducing something called neighborhood investigations into aspiring citizens.
(06:14):
And this is a discretionary practice that's actually been shelved
since the nineties. According to the Trump administration, it could
involve covering the candidate's place of residency or employment dating
back to at least five years from attemism of their applications,
and the government has said that this is just the
beginning of the changes they plan to make to the process.
(06:36):
Here's Jullie Mitchell again.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
The agency is like attempting to raise the bar and say,
like the absence of anything bad isn't enough anymore. You
have to like prove affirmatively your good moral character. The statute,
the regulations Policy Manual have not changed at all. It's
just this memo saying that this is now required, which
is kind of vague.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yeah, Mitchell and other legal experts told me that they're
kind of playing it by ear at the moment, waited
to see how this will all be implemented.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
How are her students reacting to these changes, especially given
what's going on in the news right now.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Yeah, so the students I spoke with politely declined to
be interviewed for a little more context. I think it's
worth noting that students have become more and more hesitant
to speak with the media, especially non citizens. I cover
a lot of college campuses, and this has kind of
been like the trend, to be honest, in recent months.
The ones who did speak to me generally said that
they're still excited about the prospect of becoming citizens, but
(07:34):
they're being careful about not posting anything that could be
perceived negatively by the government on social media. And Michaelson
also told me that some of our students are worried
about the neighborhood investigations. They're like, you know, some of
us have in apartments and we're not necessarily buddy buddy
with all our neighbors.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And how is Professor Michaelson's curriculum kept up with these
new changes to the naturalization process as.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
So, long story short, she's had to kind of figure
out how to teach more in the same amount of time,
and she told me that that's probably going to mean
moving faster through some lessons and maybe making cuts to
some other lessons to ensure that she covers all of
the material.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
You mentioned to me that professor Michaelson will start encouraging
her students to speak to attorneys. Why is that.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Yeah, for the time being, she does plan to tell
her students to speak with an attorney before submitting their
applications for naturalization, and she just wants them to have
a legal expert weigh in and be on their side
to answer questions she may not be able to. The
administration has stated that it aims to make it more
challenging to become a citizen, and I should note that
(08:40):
probably having to learn the answer to twenty more questions
that may not seem like a big deal, but this
is a very high stakes test, right. This is about,
like you, being able to become a citizen. And if
candidates fail the English or the Civics test, they do
get one more chance, but after that, if they don't pass,
they don't get to become US citizens. So for educators
like Michaelson, on top of all concerns, it also really
(09:01):
feels like there's a disconnect between what they're teaching their
students and what they're seeing unfold or happened to non
citizens who engage in activism. As we mentioned earlier, that.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Was Nei da Moreno hosting Imperfect Paradise. She was speaking
with reporter Juria Rajas about the changes playing out inside
a citizenship prep class at Pasadena City College. Thanks to
our friends at ELIST, here are the credits.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Special thanks to Senior Education editor Ross Brunneman and Senior
editor Matt Ballinger. I'm Neri da Moreno. Angelie Sastri is
our senior producer. James Chowd produced and sound designed this episode.
Catherine Malhouse is the executive producer of the show and
our director of content Development. Mixing and original music by E.
(09:53):
Scott Kelly
What does it mean to be a US citizen?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The Fourteenth Amendment's citizenship clause is under scrutiny on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
If you're born here in the United States, then you are,
in fact an American citizen.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
The fundamental question of who gets US citizenship is in
fact evolving. On President Trump's first day in office, he
issued an executive order to end that right for the
children of people who are in the US illegally. Earlier
this year, we brought you a story about the Trump
Administration's efforts to end birthright citizenship.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
If this injunction wasn't maintained or they attempted to lift it,
these women would have stateless children.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Today on Latino USA, we're going to bring you an
episode from our friends at ELIST, the NPR station in
Los Angeles. This story looks at another side of the
citizenship issue, new naturalization guidelines for people hoping to become
US citizens. This is something that has become even more
difficult under the Trump administration. So we're going to play
(01:11):
some of the episode from the show In Perfect Paradise,
The show's host Nae la Moreno is going to speak
with reporter Julia Rajas about the changes playing out inside
a citizenship prep class at Pasadena City College.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
So, Julia, I'm curious, how did you start looking into
this story and what made you decide to explore a
citizenship class.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
So earlier this summer, our organization got a message from
a woman named Melissa Michaelson. She's an associate professor at
Pasadena City College and she also happens to be a
loyal LAS reader and listener, and she wrote in saying,
you know, right now, it feels very hard to be
teaching students from other countries who want to be citizens.
(01:56):
She said she didn't even feel comfortable recommending that they
make an appointment for their citizenship exams because she was
scared that ice might be there waiting for them.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
And who are typically the people who take Michaelson's class
at Pasadena City College aka PCC.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
They're all adults raging in age, so some of them
could be like in their like early twenties, some of
them are like almost in their sixties. And they tend
to come from countries like China, Russia, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand,
and many parts of Latin America. One of the things
we talked about is how some of those countries don't
have democratic governments. So for some students, learning about things
like the right to vote for public officials and the
(02:33):
ability to wag in on issues is all new.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
This is democracy, So the power is within them. We
just need to harness it and power in numbers and
know your rights, know what to do, know your history,
know what happened before, build upon that, change it and
good luck. That's that's what I hope more students get
(02:59):
out of it, on top of becoming an American. Set
of them.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Julia, what do we know about who takes this test
on a wider scale?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, So we have some data from the twenty twenty
four fiscal year. That's the last full year of the
Biden administration, and in that year, the country welcomed more
than eight hundred eighteen thousand new citizens. And what I
learned is that California is home to nearly one in
five of people seeking citizenships, about eighteen percent, and the
(03:30):
LA area is actually one of the most popular areas
of residency, behind New York and Miami. The naturalization process
has always involved many steps, but there are three big
basic parts. One is that students have to demonstrate that
they can read, write, and speak in English. They also
have to pass a civics test that delves into US
history and how our government functions. And then they have
(03:52):
to clear like a big background check where the US
Citizenship and Immigration Services determines whether they are fit to
be citizens, and the Trump administration has introduced a number
of changes to that process in recent months. In the past,
applicants would just submit this like fourteen page application that
asked a bunch of questions like have you ever you know,
(04:14):
participated or assisted with things like killing or trying to
kill anyone else? Or have you prevented someone from practicing
their religion? Things like this that determine someone's moral character.
But that's gonna change. Being forward and to learn more
about these changes and how they're impacting others, I spoke
with Julie Mitchell. She is the legal director at the
Central American Resource Center and the center also provides citizenship classes.
(04:37):
She noted that the changes to a test were announced
in September of this year, which didn't really give educators
a whole lot of time to adjust their lesson plans.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
So we're going to have citizenship teachers across the country
kind of trying to scramble to be able to quickly
change developed teaching materials to a apps to a new.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Tast and tell us about the naturalization test, like what
kinds of questions are usually on it?
Speaker 4 (05:08):
The questions that are usually on it are things like
what does the Bill of Rights protect? Or like what
part of the federal government rights laws? Questions that some
of us might or might not know the answers too.
But starting this week, actually students will have to be
prepared to answer more questions correctly during their Civics test,
and they will be expected to learn the answers to
more questions too, so to explain what that I mean.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
It's like.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
In the past, students had to learn the answers to
the bank of one hundred questions, and then to pass
their tests, they had to answer six out of ten
questions correctly like verbally. But moving forward, they have to
know the answers to one hundred and twenty eight questions
and they'll have to answer twelve out of twenty questions correctly.
(05:50):
The federal government has also announced that moving forward, when
federal officials make determinations about a candidate's quote unquote good
moral character, your absence of bad behavior is no longer enough.
They're going to have to actually also prove that they've
made positive contribution to society. And the government has also
announced that it's reintroducing something called neighborhood investigations into aspiring citizens.
(06:14):
And this is a discretionary practice that's actually been shelved
since the nineties. According to the Trump administration, it could
involve covering the candidate's place of residency or employment dating
back to at least five years from attemism of their applications,
and the government has said that this is just the
beginning of the changes they plan to make to the process.
(06:36):
Here's Jullie Mitchell again.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
The agency is like attempting to raise the bar and say,
like the absence of anything bad isn't enough anymore. You
have to like prove affirmatively your good moral character. The statute,
the regulations Policy Manual have not changed at all. It's
just this memo saying that this is now required, which
is kind of vague.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yeah, Mitchell and other legal experts told me that they're
kind of playing it by ear at the moment, waited
to see how this will all be implemented.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
How are her students reacting to these changes, especially given
what's going on in the news right now.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Yeah, so the students I spoke with politely declined to
be interviewed for a little more context. I think it's
worth noting that students have become more and more hesitant
to speak with the media, especially non citizens. I cover
a lot of college campuses, and this has kind of
been like the trend, to be honest, in recent months.
The ones who did speak to me generally said that
they're still excited about the prospect of becoming citizens, but
(07:34):
they're being careful about not posting anything that could be
perceived negatively by the government on social media. And Michaelson
also told me that some of our students are worried
about the neighborhood investigations. They're like, you know, some of
us have in apartments and we're not necessarily buddy buddy
with all our neighbors.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And how is Professor Michaelson's curriculum kept up with these
new changes to the naturalization process as.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
So, long story short, she's had to kind of figure
out how to teach more in the same amount of time,
and she told me that that's probably going to mean
moving faster through some lessons and maybe making cuts to
some other lessons to ensure that she covers all of
the material.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
You mentioned to me that professor Michaelson will start encouraging
her students to speak to attorneys. Why is that.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Yeah, for the time being, she does plan to tell
her students to speak with an attorney before submitting their
applications for naturalization, and she just wants them to have
a legal expert weigh in and be on their side
to answer questions she may not be able to. The
administration has stated that it aims to make it more
challenging to become a citizen, and I should note that
(08:40):
probably having to learn the answer to twenty more questions
that may not seem like a big deal, but this
is a very high stakes test, right. This is about,
like you, being able to become a citizen. And if
candidates fail the English or the Civics test, they do
get one more chance, but after that, if they don't pass,
they don't get to become US citizens. So for educators
like Michaelson, on top of all concerns, it also really
(09:01):
feels like there's a disconnect between what they're teaching their
students and what they're seeing unfold or happened to non
citizens who engage in activism. As we mentioned earlier, that.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Was Nei da Moreno hosting Imperfect Paradise. She was speaking
with reporter Juria Rajas about the changes playing out inside
a citizenship prep class at Pasadena City College. Thanks to
our friends at ELIST, here are the credits.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Special thanks to Senior Education editor Ross Brunneman and Senior
editor Matt Ballinger. I'm Neri da Moreno. Angelie Sastri is
our senior producer. James Chowd produced and sound designed this episode.
Catherine Malhouse is the executive producer of the show and
our director of content Development. Mixing and original music by E.
(09:53):
Scott Kelly
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