J’can green card holders rushing to secure US citizenship
Published:Friday | May 16, 2025 | 12:09 AMLester Hinds/Gleaner Writer
NEW YORK:
As the Trump administration intensifies its immigration enforcement, fear and uncertainty continue to ripple through immigrant communities, prompting a surge of green card holders, including many Jamaicans, to apply for US citizenship in hopes of securing their future.
Among them is Leroy (surname withheld), a Jamaican who has lived in the US since 2006 and who obtained his green card in 2015. Though he has had legal status for years, he filed for citizenship in late 2023, motivated by then former President Trump’s tough stance on immigration and a desire to protect his family.
As the Trump administration ramps up the removal of undocumented people and uncertainty permeates immigrant communities, green card holders, who are eligible, have been rushing to become citizens to guard against being subject to immigration laws.
Joining this rush are many Jamaican green card holders, many of whom have been permanent residents for many years but are now seeking to become citizens to guard against being caught up in the administration’s immigration crackdown.
Born in Trelawny but grew up in Manchester, Leroy migrated to the United States in 2006. In 2015, he became a permanent resident when he obtained his green card.
Last November, Leroy filed to become a citizen citing the policy position taken by then candidate Donald Trump on immigration.
“I decided to become a US citizen because it seems that green card holders do not have rights, and I wanted to protect my family,” he told The Gleaner.
Leroy’s wife and five-year-old daughter migrated to the United States in 2023 after he filed for them.
NO LEGAL IMPEDIMENTS
He told The Gleaner that although they have no legal impediments that could affect them if they travelled, the family has taken the decision not to travel until they have all obtained their US citizenship.
“I have just filed for my daughter’s citizenship, but my wife has to wait another three years before she can file her citizenship paperwork. So in the meantime, we will not be travelling,” he said.
According to Leroy, he does not want to take the chance of separating his family.
“The administration immigration crackdown has us all on edge, and so I decided to become a citizen rather than risk anything happening,” he said.
Another Jamaican, 62-year-old Clifton Robinson, shares Leroy’s urgency. Originally from St Andrew, Robinson waited 12 years after being sponsored by his sister before moving to the US in 2013. He received his green card in 2023 and has since filed for his daughter and grandchildren, who are now lawful permanent residents.
“As soon as they are eligible, the paperwork for their citizenship will be filed,” he disclosed, although his citizenship application is still pending with the United States Department of State.
Immigration attorney Wayne Golding told The Gleaner that he was aware of a surge among Jamaicans to become citizens in the early part of the year but that he was unable to say if that surge has continued.
FILING OWN APPLICATION
“Many people are using the Department of State’s user-friendly app to file their own application for citizenship, so it is difficult to know how many have, indeed, filed,” he said.
But Golding, like other immigration advocates, has encouraged people filing for US citizenship to first check with an immigration attorney just to be on the safe side. Such checks, he said, can reveal if there are impediments to green card holders becoming citizens.
Another immigration attorney, Winston Tucker, noted that some persons have said that they will sit out filing for citizenship until after the end of the current administration.
“They are taking this position because they are unsure of the outcome of their citizenship applications,” he said.
Like Golding, Tucker is advising potential citizens to consult a professional attorney to ensure that there are no barriers to them becoming citizens.
Statistics from the Department of Homeland Security show that between 2013 and 2022, a total of 186,024 Jamaicans were granted green cards.
In 2023, Jamaica ranked among the top 10 countries of origin for individuals granted US green cards although the exact number for 2023 was not specifically stated.
In 2023, twenty thousand two hundred Jamaicans became naturalised US citizens, but this represented a 12 per cent fall from the 22,963 Jamaicans naturalised in the previous fiscal year (October 2021 to September 2022). Jamaica ranked as the seventh-largest country for new US citizens in Fiscal Year 2023, with the US remaining the primary destination for Jamaican migrants, according to figures from the US Department of State.