U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approved about 173,000 people for citizenship in the first eight months of 2026, 72 percent fewer than in the same months of 2025, The Washington Post reported on October 23. The figure counts approved naturalization applications, not new applications or oath ceremonies, and the agency's own published data, which runs through June, shows the same scale: USCIS approved 141,156 applications from January through June 2026, against 476,671 in the first half of 2025, a drop of 70 percent. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says USCIS has tightened vetting and "implemented reforms to ensure U.S. citizenship is reserved for those who qualify." The Post reported that the slowdown has left would-be voters "in limbo" ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. "Citizenship is not a political favor granted by an administration. It is a legal right for those who meet the requirements," Adam Klein, who spent two decades at DHS, including adjudicating citizenship applications at USCIS, told Newsweek. Klein is now a co-founder of Globali.ai, which sells immigration case-management software to companies.
What the numbers show
Approval is not the last step. An approved applicant becomes a citizen only after taking the oath of allegiance at a naturalization ceremony, and can register to vote only after that. USCIS's quarterly reports show the slowdown across the process. From April through June 2026 the agency approved 57,697 applications, down from 241,326 a year earlier, and denied 12,842, down from 23,288. It is deciding far fewer cases, and denying a larger share of those it decides: about 18 percent, up from about 9 percent. Applications awaiting a decision rose from 529,018 at the end of June 2025 to 742,138 a year later; the Post put the backlog above 800,000 as of August and reported that average waits rose from about six months to nearly 13. Fewer people are applying, too: USCIS received 145,872 applications in the spring quarter, down from 251,467 a year earlier.
The agency's reasons, and its critics
"Naturalization is a privilege, not a right," USCIS Director Joseph Edlow told the House Homeland Security Committee in February; Klein, the former DHS adjudicator, disputes that, calling citizenship "a legal right for those who meet the requirements." Edlow listed a harder civics test (20 questions drawn from a bank of 128, with 12 correct answers needed to pass, up from 6 of 10), the return of "neighborhood investigations" of applicants, which he called "an authority provided for in statute, but long neglected in practice," and holds and re-reviews, begun after a November 2025 attack in Washington in which an Afghan national is accused of killing a National Guard member, that came to cover people from 39 countries the administration designates as high-risk. A DHS spokesperson told Newsweek that USCIS had ended the "rubber-stamping" of applications under the previous administration and "will not take shortcuts in the naturalization process." "In another political reality and in other administrations, you would not see that many applications pending and just sitting in a backlog," Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, told Newsweek. On June 5, Chief Judge John McConnell of the federal court in Rhode Island vacated the holds on applicants from the 39 countries; USCIS said it "strongly disagrees" but would follow the order. DHS has also presented the drop as a success: a DHS post on October 2 listed "Naturalizations down 75%" among what it called victories "NEVER seen before thanks to President Trump." The Post reported that some applicants are turning to federal courts for help.
Ceremonies and voter registration
The Post reported that the administration "has also canceled or scaled back naturalization ceremonies around the country, alarming civic groups who typically attend the ceremonies to register new voters." In Austin, where ceremonies were halted in January, USCIS told the city it was canceling them because applications had dropped and more extensive vetting was slowing decisions and ceremony scheduling, Axios reported. In the Cleveland area, immigration officials have canceled 13 naturalization ceremonies this year, including almost every one scheduled between May and October, according to the federal court for Ohio's Northern District, Ideastream Public Media reported; attorneys attributed the cancellations to fewer people making it through a slower process, while a USCIS spokesman said the agency "is implementing rigorous screening and vetting processes across the country." A separate dispute concerns who may help new citizens register at ceremonies USCIS runs itself. In August 2025 the agency limited that work to state and local election officials, citing the administrative burden of making sure outside groups were nonpartisan; Edlow told Congress the change kept registration "strictly nonpartisan." The League of Women Voters, which describes itself as nonpartisan and says it does not support or oppose candidates, said the rule forced its chapters to cancel 166 planned events where they expected to register about 10,000 new voters. U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson blocked the rule in August and entered a final judgment permanently barring it in mid-October.
This article reflects reporting through the afternoon of Monday, October 26, 2026. Sources: The Washington Post; USCIS Form N-400 quarterly data; testimony of USCIS Director Joseph Edlow; Newsweek; Barnes & Thornburg; Votebeat; Campaign Legal Center; Axios; Ideastream Public Media, September 28; VisaVerge.
