Local volunteer Nancy Pike says helping Somali refugees from Barron, Wisconsin obtain their citizenship is the most selfish thing she does every week.
“It’s a very selfish endeavor,” said Pike. “I walk out of here feeling like a million bucks.”
Pike is a member of a local community group named Citizen Partners. She, along with others in the group, volunteer at the Barron Public Library once a week to help Somali refugees succeed on their U.S. Citizenship tests.
The citizenship test is a 100-question civics test with an added component of reading and vocabulary. It is a requirement of the U.S. Government that any immigrant or refugee wishing to become a citizen must pass the exam. This is not easy to do when English is not your first language.
While the exam focuses on things such as U.S. history, the three branches of government, and governing documents such as the Constitution, Pike says that the real goal of the exam is to have people become functionally fluent in English.
She recalls one story of a person who went to take the test and, when they walked in, the examiner told everyone to put their bags on the right chair and their papers on the left chair.
Examiners will often give test takers basic commands such as raising their right hand or to remain in a standing position.
Pike commented on the fairness of the exam by saying it is a pretty good means of making citizenship something of value that people have to work for.
“I have no issues with the test,” said Pike.
What she does take issue with is the various ways in which people are taken advantage of financially while in the process of becoming naturalized.
It costs around $750 just to take the test. If passed, you become a citizen and any child you have under the age of 18 are automatically naturalized. However, there is a catch.
“Once you become a naturalized citizen your children who are younger than 18 are automatically are granted citizenship but are not granted paperwork unless you apply for it,” said Pike.
Applying for these papers for your children can cost more than $1,000 per child.
Moreover, when applying for these papers, or other legal documents such as green cards, there is a serious lack of legal representation in Barron to ensure that immigrants and refugees are not taken advantage of.
Pike says that with the new administration (the Trump administration), the system is becoming more geared towards saying no to people.
The problem comes with applicants who make a mistake on their application. Previously, if you made a mistake on a green card application, for example, you would receive a letter of ‘intent to deny,’ saying the government cannot approve the application until it is corrected.
Now with the new administration, applicants are being flat-out denied because of mistakes made on an application. This is where legal representation is needed to ensure applications are filled out correctly.
Nancy Pike takes on this volunteer work in order to help Somali Refugees. And it’s not only because she wants them to obtain their citizenship, it goes much deeper than that.
Many of the Somali immigrants in Barron came by themselves or with only half of their immediate family; it is rare to see a whole family together in the city.
“The number one issue so close to my heart and always on my mind is all the families here in Barron who have family members stuck in Africa indefinitely,” said Pike.
Immediate family members such as small children, spouses, wives, and so forth, are trapped in Africa because of President Trump’s travel ban that he issued through an executive order.
The original travel ban was blocked by several courts but the most recent revision of Executive order 13780 says that travel is banned for nationals of Somalia on immigrant visas.
In short, the most current version of the travel ban makes it exceptionally hard for Somali nationals to immigrate to the U.S. People who are ethnically from Somalia, even if they do not live there now, are trapped.
They are trapped mainly in neighboring Kenya or Uganda, where many Somalis have fled in order to escape the hardships of their country. Most of them live in refugee camps.
“It is a great tragedy for so many people,” said Pike. “What we have to understand about that is that no matter what our opinions are about immigration, whether we think should have more families come or fewer or none at all, what we’ve done is we’ve cut in half families.”
And the families who have come here legally and followed all the rules as refugees have no say in where the United Nations assigns them to live.
She says that many of these Somalians were assigned to the United States and that they came here in good faith, they contributed to the economy, and work hard.
“I think that the new administration just hasn’t taken to heart what the impact is on existing families who followed the rules, who came here working hard for the American dream,” said Pike.
The new administration has created many new policies regarding immigration, specifically in their chain migration policies. This makes it harder for Somalians to come over with their entire immediate family.
Somalians in Barron, Wisconsin want nothing more than to be able to bring over their immediate family members to the United States.
“It’s a clear lack of priority for these families,” said Pike. “We’re aware of the separation of families at the border, which is heinous and awful, but I don’t think everyone is aware of the families that have been divided by this change in policy.”
She notes that people will say and ask why the Somalians who are here just don’t go back to their families in Africa. Her response is that there is no way to support their families in Africa and that need to work here in order to support them.
“I can just hear people say, ‘well why don’t you just go back and why did you leave your children behind?” said Pike.
It was then that she grew emotional, holding back tears with an exasperated voice that wanted to cry.
“They come because they have no choice,” said Pike.
If they go back to Africa then they give up everything they have worked so hard for here in America.