CIS kicks voter registration groups out of naturalization ceremonies

For decades, the League of Women Voters and similar civic groups have welcomed new citizens with a voter registration table. No longer.

An Aug. 29 policy statement from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency, says the agency will from now on bar nonpartisan groups such as the League of Women Voters from offering voter registration services at the end of CIS-hosted naturalization ceremonies.

The League of Women Voters, deploring the move, says it's been offering voter registration at naturalization ceremonies "for decades."

If CIS has alleged that this process has been abused in some way, I've missed it.

Under the new policy, CIS will still invite state and local election agencies — and only them — to offer voter registration after ceremonies. The League, however, says those agencies often lack capacity to send personnel to the events and have been grateful for the help.

If the state and local agencies don’t send anyone, CIS says it will have on hand voter registration forms that newly naturalized citizens can pick up if they like. Of course, for there simply to be available a form, as opposed to a table with a cheerful person happy to explain how the form works, is likely to result in less uptake for the option.

The new policy applies to so-called administrative naturalization ceremonies in which CIS officials are present. That includes not only those held at CIS facilities but also, so far as I can see, those at off-site locations that civic or government groups have made available for the occasion, such as civic centers and other public buildings, military bases, sporting events, fairs and so forth. CIS can and does place extensive conditions on the government and civic groups that make these venues available, so I assume it can probably impose its policy, or something close, in off-site locations that are not on CIS’s own property.

On the other hand, if I'm reading the newly revised CIS policy manual correctly, the new policy does not extend (see Footnote 1) to "judicial" naturalizations in which a federal, state, or local judge administers the oath of allegiance at a courthouse or elsewhere. If so, nonprofits can still register voters at those venues with host permission.

I thought nativists' and national conservatives’ aim was to draw a sharp line around the concept of citizenship, with new citizens expected to assimilate fully and vigorously to American life once they take the oath of allegiance and their status changes. What could better symbolize assimilation than signing up for voter registration?

Photo: “Register to vote here,” North Minneapolis, Sept. 29, 2012, by Tony Webster from Portland, Oregon, at Wikimedia Commons.