WASHINGTON – Alicia Bowers, a Panamanian immigrant, can easily recall that George Washington was the first U.S. president. She knows the three branches of government are legislative, executive and judicial.
But Bowers, who took a course to study for the U.S. citizenship test she plans to take, was stumped when asked why there are three branches of government.
She also couldn’t answer two other draft questions the government wants to try out on 5,000 immigrants who volunteer in 10 cities in an attempt to revise the citizenship test.
Emilio Gonzalez, director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, a Homeland Security Department agency, said immigrants should know what they are swearing allegiance to when they take the oath of citizenship.
“You ought to internalize by that time the very values that make this country what it is, the very reason why you are raising your right hand. … Citizenship is not test taking.”
Among the draft questions are some hinging on current events, such as “What major event happened on Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States?” and “Who is the speaker of the House of Representatives now?” The answers are terrorists attacked the United States and Nancy Pelosi, who becomes speaker when Democrats take over next year.
Applicants must verbally answer six of 10 questions correctly to pass the civics portion of the test. Some questions will have more than one answer.
Citizenship and Immigration Services expects to spend about $6.5 million to revise the test. The agency attempted once before to try out new questions, but failed and scuttled those. For these questions, the federal government sought the input of immigration advocates, groups that want tougher controls on immigration, adult educators and others as it drafted the questions.
Immigrants can apply twice for citizenship, and get two tries per application to pass the test. The passage rates on the first application are 84 percent and on second application are 95 percent with the current test.
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