Mr. President. I rise to introduce legislation restoring the longstanding right of judges to administer the oath of allegiance to immigrants eligible for naturalization as citizens of the United States. Under the Immigrants and Nationality Act of 1990. the exclusive right of judges to conduct these ceremonies would be stripped in favor of a procedure in which the individual applicant could choose between a naturalization ceremony conducted by a Federal or State judge or a ceremony presided over by an administrative officer of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. This transfer of authority would end a custom that has been valued by the courts and the public since 1906. The Immigration and Nationality Act made the change in order to address the problem of backlogs in the naturalization process. However. the proposed change goes too far. It effectively takes judges out of the process.
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