The Trump Admin Is Right To Screen Potential U.S. Citizens For ‘Good Moral Character’, by Nick Pietrowicz

A recent U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services memo announced that foreigners aspiring to become American citizens must meet a “Good Moral Character” standard. This directive is a return to policies that existed before the loosening of naturalization requirements in the early 1990s. That USCIS is now again requiring foreigners to demonstrate “character commensurate with the standards of average citizens” is positive.

Critics argue the change will make acquiring citizenship too difficult or political. But as the USCIS memo relates, naturalization is not simply “a procedural immigration benefit.” And the grant of citizenship has never been completely apolitical. Naturalization is a gift from the American people, not a status earned by ticking administrative boxes. So important is that gift that a congressional grant of mere honorary citizenship to the universally esteemed Winston Churchill in 1963 engendered thoughtful, bipartisan debate before its passage. …

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