Meet the San Franciscans trying to become U.S. citizens

Abigail Larios felt confident going into her U.S. citizenship test: She’d been studying all year, had worked on her English, and was ready to talk about her history in the country.

But as she was leaving her immigration interview hours later, officials told her they weren’t ready to swear her in as a citizen. They’d need a couple of weeks to review her record.

Months later, Larios remains in citizenship limbo.

Her story reflects the confusion and uncertainty surrounding citizenship in the second Trump presidency, which has included an executive order targeting birthright citizenship, the growing threat of raids by immigration agents, and a move to make the process more difficult. This has led to an uptick in longtime U.S. residents seeking citizenship.

“There is more of an urgency to become a citizen,” said Jake Simons, who runs a citizenship class at the Mission-based nonprofit Centro Latino. “The administration has kind of imposed this fear that anything could happen, regardless of if you're a permanent resident, regardless of if you're a citizen.”

On this episode of “Pacific Standard Time,” The Standard visits Simons’ citizenship class and follows Larios as she attempts to complete the process during one of the most fraught periods in recent immigration history.

Background reading:

• Bracing for the ICE storm, SF immigrants are in hiding
• A green card was once enough for Chinese immigrants. Now they don’t feel safe
• This is what happens when your immigration judge is fired

For more information on this week’s episode, visit ⁠sfstandard.com/pacific-standard-time⁠. Transcripts of each episode are available on our website. 

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