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13 Nov, 9 tweets, 4 min read
🚨Surprise! The Trump admin just released a new civics test that all aspiring US citizens must pass if applying after Dec 1.

Quoth DHS: "offering a fair test...is of upmost [sic] importance to our agency."

Let's look at what's changing...

1/
uscis.gov/news/news-rele…
Superficially, the 60% threshold for correct answers is the same.

But studying the new 128 (more complicated) questions will be harder than studying the old 100 (more straightforward) questions.

And scoring 12/20 will be harder than scoring 6/10.

2/
 uscis.gov/citizenship-re…
But the new civics test isn't just more difficult for no apparent reason—it also contains straight-up errors.

Q: Who does a Senator represent?

Old test: "All people of the state" [true]

New test: "Citizens of their state" [ideologically extreme & not true!]

3/
Test-takers are now required to describe only one Constitutional amendment. Guess which?

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10th! The conservative movement's cause celebre!

4/
 cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/…
New question: "Why is the Electoral College important?"

2 acceptable answers:

"It decides who is elected president."

"It provides a compromise between the popular election of the president and congressional selection."

Is that all?

5/
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Old test: Name one important thing about Franklin & Lincoln.

New test: Adds Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and...Eisenhower?

Nothing against Eisenhower, but that's a rather curious call over FDR.

6/
In fairness, this isn't a new question, but why wasn't it updated?

The US gov't fought over a dozen "Indian Wars" in the 1800s, per @USArmyCMH.

7/
history.army.mil/html/reference…
The new civics test is unnecessary, unjustified, overly complex, & shamelessly ideological.

This is an obvious attempt to throw one more obstacle in front of immigrants legally eligible for US citizenship.

The Biden admin can & should immediately restore the current test.

8/
More info here—including a civics quiz & a Rand family heirloom...

9/9

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More from @doug_rand

Doug Rand Profile picture
10 Nov
🚨On Trump's way out, expect yet another barrier to immigrants becoming US citizens: @priscialva reports a plan to double the number of questions on the civics test, from 10-->20, & (apparently) make them considerably harder.

1/
 cnn.com/2020/11/10/pol…
First of all, the civics questions for US citizenship are already pretty hard—see for yourself!

2/
 nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Second, Congress requires naturalized US citizens to demonstrate "a knowledge & understanding of the fundamentals of the history, & of the principles & form of government, of the United States."

That leaves much discretion to DHS, which it's likely to abuse.

3/
Read 5 tweets
Doug Rand Profile picture
9 Nov
At last! Instead of poring over Trump's regulatory agenda for new outrages, I present to you an overview of how the Biden administration can reverse it all.

Trump has made >400 changes to the immigration system without Congress, per @MigrationPolicy.

1/
 migrationpolicy.org/research/us-im…
All of these changes are "executive actions." That's a catch-all term for anything done by the executive branch, including:

*Executive Orders (a specific kind of White House doc)
*Regulations
*Policy memos
*Other subregulatory actions

Some are easy to rescind; others not.

2/
Let's start where Trump started: Presidential Proclamations.

The vast majority of them are purely symbolic, bestowing honorifics on various months of the year.

There's at least one big exception, though, as we all learned the hard way in January 2017...

3/ Image
Read 21 tweets
Doug Rand Profile picture
1 Oct
🚨DHS just released yet another proposed rule intended to restrict access to permanent residency (green cards) for hundreds of thousands of family-based immigrants each year.

Trump's team will race to finalize this before Jan 20, if he loses.

1/
 federalregister.gov/documents/2020…
Most immigrants are already required to have a financial sponsor (eg a close relative) who shows income >125% of the federal poverty line & promises to pay back the gov't if the immigrant uses public benefits.

More on this "Affidavit of Support":
2/
 boundless.com/immigration-re…
DHS wants to make it much harder for would-be immigrants to have an eligible financial sponsor—& therefore green cards—& ultimately citizenship.

3/
 boundless.com/immigration-re…
Read 6 tweets
Doug Rand Profile picture
27 Sep
Heads up! The Labor Dept is about to publish an Interim Final Rule: "Restructuring of H-1B/H-1B1/E-3 and PERM Wage Levels."

It was received by OIRA on 9/16, & will presumably be cleared & published very soon.

What will it do? We have some clues...
1/
 reginfo.gov/public/do/eoRe… Image
In a June 22 proclamation, Trump banned most new temporary workers from entering the US—& included a preview of more regs to come.

DOL was tasked with this upcoming rule. It might make above-average salaries mandatory for H-1Bs & some green cards.
2/
 whitehouse.gov/presidential-a… Image
It's a bold move for this to be an "Interim Final Rule," effective immediately, without considering public comments. Courts won't like that.

This shows that the Trump administration isn't confident about winning the election, & at least wants to torment a Biden admin.

3/
Read 6 tweets
Doug Rand Profile picture
24 Sep
It's bad enough DHS just proposed to put a strict 4-year expiration date on most student visas, with major hurdles against getting an extension.

What about PhDs?

DHS notes that most int'l students are undergrads & master's students, & literally relegates PhDs to a footnote.

1/ ImageImageImage
If only another federal agency had detailed data on PhDs that DHS could've easily consulted...

Oh, hey @NSF! What's that you say? There are >17,000 int'l PhD grads in the US each year, who spent on avg >8 years to earn their doctorates?

Cool, cool.
2/
 ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf20301/… Image
@NSF Leave it to the Trump administration to treat the best-trained, most-dedicated, most-critical-to-US-tech-predominance students as a rounding error.

"Because I'm in a PhD program" is *not* one of the grounds for a student visa extension beyond 4 years in the proposed rule.

3/ Image
Read 4 tweets
Doug Rand Profile picture
24 Sep
Today DHS unveiled a regulatory plan to severely restrict international students & exchange visitors, by making it difficult for them to stay in the US for their full duration of study.

Let's dive into this latest thicket of useless red tape...
1/
 federalregister.gov/documents/2020…
Status quo: Your student visa lasts until you've finished your studies; there's no hard expiration date.

Proposed rule: Most students on an F-1 visa would have a hard 4-year expiration date—only 2 years for language training—with limited ability to apply for an extension.

2/
If your course of study ends up taking longer than 4 years, DHS won't accept very many grounds for an extension.

3/
Read 11 tweets

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