Ngoc Phuong T Pham, originally from Vietnam, participates in the Fiesta of Independence Naturalization Ceremony at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix on July 4. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)

By Maria Sacchetti, The Washington Post
October 3, 2018

More than 754,700 immigrants became U.S. citizens during President Trump’s second year in office, the highest number since 2013, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Wednesday.

The latest figures followed slumping citizenship numbers during fiscal 2017, a period that includes the president’s first nine months in office, and mounting frustration from advocates who fear that the government’s “extreme vetting” will prevent people from becoming citizens in time to vote in the November midterms.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) spokesman Michael Bars said the agency had to keep up with a “record and unprecedented” workload of nearly 2 million applications in 2016 and 2017 and has rebounded by increasing staff, launching four new offices — including a larger application-processing center scheduled to open soon in Dallas — and expanding 10 others.

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