Some Americans have threatened to move to another country if billionaire Donald Trump is elected President but in Texas, there are thousands are applying to become U.S. citizens because of Trump.
“I don’t know any other country but this one,” said Francis Ortiz. Born in Mexico, Ortiz came to the U.S. when she was 8, and she’s been in Texas ever since.
Now, more than two decades later, the 29-year-old is worried that her legal status could be revoked and she and her family would get deported back to Mexico.
“It’s like being an alien in your own country when really you’ve lived here forever,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz said the rhetoric on the Republican side of the 2016 Presidential Election – like Trump talking about a wall along the border – is why she’s in a rush to complete her application.
“That’s our biggest fear right now,” Ortiz said, “It concerns pretty much everybody that’s in my group.”
Legal residents of the United States—commonly called Greed Card holders—have started to question how permanent their status is.
“It could all go away, absolutely, that is the concern of most of our clients,” said Robert Painter, the interim Executive Director at American Gateways in Austin. The non-profit organization provides legal services to low-income immigrants and that includes helping people through the Naturalization application.
Painter said the staff there has recently seen a lot of people who, like Ortiz, have spent most of their life on U.S. soil.
“They’ve been, living, working and contributing for most of their lives and their afraid all of that could be erased by a simple change of the rules,” Painter said.
Laws and legal statuses that could be changed when the next President takes over the reins in Washington D.C.
Painter said clients who currently have with legal status in the U.S. are concerned, “that those protections will be erased and they will be left vulnerable again.”
Reports from the Federal Government show the number of legal permanent residents to apply to become a naturalized U.S. citizen is on the rise in Texas and across most of the country.
In the summer of 2015, the most recent numbers of the Department of Homeland Security show submissions from Texas jumped nearly 15 percent from the previous year.
“We’re not doing anything bad to other people—we deserve a chance,” Oritz said, “that’s what we wish and hope for them to see.”
The path to citizenship can be a lengthy process which is why Ortiz wants to cement her legal status now— before the November election.
“That’s one positive thing,” Oritz said, “We started to see how important it is to become a U.S. citizen and to vote.”
According to The Department of Homeland Security, there are 1.3 million legal residents living in Texas—just under a million are eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship.
