Immigrants and refugees came under sharp attack during the rise of xenophobic rhetoric and policies ignited in 2015.
Instead of being afraid, many responded by becoming U.S. citizens in record numbers. From 2015-2020, around 5 million immigrants and former refugees naturalized, many of whom voted in the 2020 presidential election for the first time. According to the NPNA’s 2021 “Naturalize Now, Vote Tomorrow” report, this critical trend stands to fundamentally change the power and recognition of immigrants.
2020 was the first year that Naturalized immigrants comprised 1 in 10 eligible voters in the U.S., a doubling of the immigrant electorate since 2000. Over the last six years, New American voters have become a large voting block, yet there remains a 10-point gap between voting rates of naturalized citizens and the native-born. This gap is slowly shrinking, but can be accelerated by effective, targeted outreach to new citizens.
A small increase in turnout in states can sway the outcome of national, state, and local elections.
2020
NPNA’s New American Voters 2020 Campaign uplifted the diverse stories of the newly naturalized, especially in states with high numbers of newly naturalized citizens. In our inaugural year, we made waves nationally by uplifting the stories of naturalized voters which mainstream media outlets dubbed “an emerging voting bloc.”
2021
As a way to hold the incoming Biden-Harris administration accountable to their promise to focus on immigrant and refugee inclusion- with particular focus on naturalization, we launched the 2 year “Naturalize 2 Million by 2022” campaign. This became a powerful messaging vehicle utilized by the field, coupled with advocacy to reduce the naturalization application backlog.
2022
In a consequential midterm election year- the second year of the “2 Million by 2022” campaign kicked into high gear with a strong naturalization push in the first half and a pivot to elections in the second half. Our 20-city campaign tour included NPNA members, local ethnic media, municipal and union partners who were instrumental is reaching low income and working class eligible to naturalize populations. While NPNA and our campaign’s efforts alone were not the only cause for increase in naturalizations, our campaign did drive an affirmative narrative that put the stories of naturalized citizens at the forefront. In early 2023, USCIS reported a 15-year high record of naturalizations.