Think Immigration: AILA’s Citizenship Day in Chicago: Uplifting Communities in a Time of Adversity
The Chicago AILA chapter celebrated this year’s 20th annual Citizenship Day by partnering with local non-profit Erie Neighborhood House and the Chicago Federation of Labor to hold a naturalization workshop. Thanks to the generous time and support of our AILA pro bono volunteers, and the outreach efforts of local unions, we screened more than 50 lawful permanent residents for eligibility to naturalize— the final step in what is, for many immigrants, a decades-long process.
Our chapter's Citizenship Day workshop was our largest event in years, a true testament to our communities’ and members’ resilience in the face of endless attacks by the Trump administration. Chicago’s immigrant communities have endured months of fear and uncertainty, which then escalated this summer when the Administration ramped up its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) efforts across the city. This was followed by threatening to deploy the National Guard, as part of its anti-immigrant crackdown aimed at so-called “sanctuary” cities. The Supreme Court’s September 8, 2025, decision in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo has cleared the way for ICE to indiscriminately stop and racially profile individuals, leaving citizens and noncitizens alike feeling unsafe and at risk leaving their homes. Within days of this decision, on September 12, 2025, ICE agents fatally shot a local resident, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, during a traffic stop in the northwest suburb of Franklin Park.
In response to rising and clearly legitimate community fears, our workshop coordinators took extra precautions to encourage safe participation. Our event venue had building security and protocols in place. All attendees were registered in advance, and we did not accept walk-ins. We also did not publicize the event on social or local media but instead through our trusted community partners.
ICE’s presence in Chicago was not the only challenge facing our Citizenship Day workshop coordinators. The Trump administration has threatened to seek to denaturalize more individuals for an array of reasons, which has stoked fear and had a chilling effect on individuals who are eligible to naturalize. In August, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a flurry of updates and announcements targeting naturalization requirements, including updated guidance on establishing good moral character, stricter review of Form N-648 disability exceptions, and new discretionary factors that will result in the denial of more immigration benefits.
On September 17, 2025, just three days before Citizenship Day, USCIS unveiled a new, stricter civics exam that goes into effect October 20, 2025. The new test requires applicants to study 128 civics questions instead of 100, and they must answer up to 20 instead of 10 questions during their examination. USCIS claims these changes are necessary so new citizens “are fully assimilated and will contribute to America’s greatness," yet these substantial changes will only serve to create more barriers for lawful permanent residents to achieving their goal of U.S. citizenship.
In the face of unrelenting attacks on our immigrant communities, the significance of AILA’s Citizenship Day has never felt more critical. I am grateful to all our volunteers, but especially my AILA colleagues who showed up in full force this year despite the chronic strain and burnout our profession is facing, to screen and guide applicants through the citizenship process. For me, Citizenship Day is a powerful reminder of our collective strength and our shared vision of America’s greatness, which stands on the backs of immigrants.
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