5 July—According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (there’s a federal bureaucracy for everything), some 11,000 new citizens will be naturalized in about 200 ceremonies throughout the country around Independence Day. The USCIS release says, “These ceremonies demonstrate our government’s commitment to welcoming immigrants and promoting the benefits of U.S. citizenship for all who are eligible. In fiscal year 2023, USCIS welcomed 878,500 new U.S. citizens. So far in FY 2024, USCIS has welcomed 589,400.”

Among the hurdles legal (im)migrants must negotiate to become citizens is a 10-question oral civics test, with the questions (randomly?) selected by examiners from 100 questions the wannabe Americans can study up on in the USCIS cheat sheet. It takes only six correct answers to pass.

And, although it’s absolutely ridiculous as well as insulting, legal immigrants over 65 who have been here at least two decades can get away memorizing the answers to considerably fewer questions, which are asterisked on the cheat sheet.

All the questions are pretty basic. You don’t have to be an immigrant to answer them. For instance: What did the Declaration of Independence do? What is the name of the Vice President of the United States now? What does the judicial branch do? Who is the governor of your state now?

Yet there are are several questions that some of the media consider harder than others. Go figure. Certainly Litchfield Monitor readers in the United States and abroad and even in California and Florida can answer them all without brain strain. These are they:

1. Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States.
2. Who was President during the Great Depression and World War II?
3. What is the rule of law?
4. Who was President during World War I?
5. Who is the Chief Justice of the United States now?
6. How many Justices are on the Supreme Court?
7. When was the Constitution written?
8. The House of Representatives has how many members?
9. How many amendments does the Constitution have?
10. Name one writer of the Federalist Papers.

(Oh, come on. You must know at least six of the answers.)

So after the newbies have cleared all the hurdles, they must take the oath to become citizens that native-born Americans have never even thought about:

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

(Depending on religious and personal beliefs, of course, the lines about bearing arms and noncombatant service can be omitted with prior approval from USCIS officials, as can “so help me God.”)

Who abjures anything these days?