Sponsor
Edward John Markey
Senator · D-MA
Senator · D-MA
Guarantees procedural rights for approved naturalization applicants to attend ceremonies, receive notice before denials/postponements, and obtain judicial review and prompt rescheduling.
Official title: Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide individuals approved for naturalization with the right to complete the naturalization process, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 18, 2025 by Edward John Markey · Last progress December 18, 2025
The bill strengthens immigrants' procedural rights, transparency, and enforceable remedies for naturalization ceremonies, while imposing modest delays, administrative burdens, and limits on DHS discretion intended to protect national security.
Immigrant applicants are guaranteed the right to attend their naturalization ceremony, take the oath, and receive a certificate, reducing arbitrary denials of citizenship ceremonies.
Immigrant applicants denied or postponed can obtain judicial review and mandamus relief, allowing courts to correct wrongful withholding of citizenship and providing an enforceable remedy.
Prevailing applicants can recover attorneys' fees and DHS must reschedule ceremonies within 10 days, improving access to timely relief and incentivizing compliance with ceremony decisions.
Some applicants may still have ceremonies barred or postponed for national-security reasons for up to 30 days, meaning citizenship can be delayed even under the new protections.
The bill's narrower exceptions for delaying ceremonies (e.g., limited fraud/ineligibility grounds) reduce DHS's flexibility to use broader categorical screening in urgent security situations, potentially creating implementation friction and contested denials.
Requiring written notices, supervisory review, and formal responses will increase administrative workload for DHS and USCIS staff and could slow overall ceremony processing and case throughput.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Guarantees that people whose naturalization applications have been approved generally have the right to appear at scheduled naturalization ceremonies, take the oath of allegiance, and receive a certificate of naturalization, with limited exceptions. It restricts when DHS may bar or postpone participation, requires written notice and an opportunity to respond, mandates supervisory review and judicial review of denials, forbids secret or unpublished ceremony policies, and requires DHS to reschedule ceremonies quickly if a court orders it.