'Trump Effect': Surge in Citizenship, Voter Applications in US

Voter registration and citizenship applications have reached records high among Latinos and other immigrants in the United States amid fears of a Donald Trump presidency and his controversial immigration policies, local media reported Friday.

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Since January, California alone has seen an increase of 218 percent in Democratic registration, The Washington Post said adding that among Latinos the registration is up 123 percent.

The newspaper also reported last week that figures released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services show 249,730 new citizenship applications were submitted from January to March, a 28 percent jump from last year and a 34 percent increase from last quarter.

Observers and activists expect an increase by nearly 1 million new citizens in 2016, which is roughly 200,000 more than the average in most years, The Washington Post said.

Meanwhile the Boston Globe reported Friday that from January to March nearly 8,000 people applied for citizenship in Massachusetts alone, a 30 percent increase from the previous quarter.

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Some activists and public employees are calling the new surge the “Trump effect” as the Republican presumptive candidate remains firm on his immigration policies that involve building a wall along the border with Mexico, deporting the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants as well as deporting Muslim citizens.

“We hear the voices on the ground,” Eva Millona, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, told the Boston Globe. “People are terrified.”

Several nonprofits and Latino groups have been campaigning immigrants in the U.S. to apply for citizenship and obtain registration for voting in a bid to allow them to participate in the upcoming elections.

Across the U.S. some 8.8 million people are eligible to apply, but most have not, according to the Boston-based nonprofit Project Citizenship.