Faith Isaya's journey to American citizenship started with a love story.
Working as a translator at small churches in her native Tanzania, she met Dean, the missionary who would become her husband and eventually followed him to the United States.
Isaya applied for a visa, then a green card, and spent years navigating the naturalization process. After completing her paperwork and passing the required test, she was finally scheduled to take the Oath of Allegiance and become a citizen.
Then her naturalization ceremony was canceled.
"I was supposed to do this four months ago," Isaya said, just minutes after her rescheduled ceremony. "I was ready and all that, and then I was told it's canceled. You cannot come anymore until we are ready for you."
Isaya was one of 22 new U.S. citizens who took the Oath of Allegiance recently in the Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School auditorium.
But ceremonies like this, and the people reaching the final step of the immigration process in Cleveland, are becoming less common under President Donald Trump's immigration policies.
Immigration officials have canceled 13 naturalization ceremonies in the Cleveland area this year, according to the U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio, including almost every ceremony scheduled between May and October.
Attorneys told Ideastream that the once-frequent ceremonies were canceled because fewer people are making it through a slower legal immigration process. Data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services also show a sharp decline in new citizens since last fall.
Officials approved roughly 70,000 new citizens each month in 2024 and 2025. But this year, that monthly number has fallen to about 23,000. And in July, just 16,514 applicants were approved.
At the same time, the backlog of pending citizenship applications grew from 540,000 at the beginning of 2025 to nearly 780,000 cases in July, while average processing times increased from about six months to nearly one year.
The slowdown is also evident across Ohio, which has USCIS field offices in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Federal data shows that the number of citizenship applications approved by Ohio field offices fell from more than 1,000 per month last year to less than 600 per month in 2026. Meanwhile, the backlog of pending applications grew from 6,710 when Trump took office to 8,900 by June's end.
USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler responded to questions about the canceled ceremonies by saying immigration officials are conducting more rigorous reviews.
“For years, the Biden administration prioritized rubberstamping aliens’ applications for U.S. citizenship with minimal vetting," Kahler said. "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, under the leadership of President Trump, is implementing rigorous screening and vetting processes across the country. USCIS will not take shortcuts in the naturalization process.”
Cleveland Councilmember Tanmay Shah said fewer immigrants would hurt the city. As an immigrant himself, he said the administration's policies also hurt people.
Shah remembers quizzing his parents as they studied for their own naturalization interviews, the final step before an applicant can be approved and a ceremony can be scheduled. It was a point of pride for his parents, Shah said, but becoming a citizen also comes with rights and protections.
"This is something they've been waiting on for decades," Shah said. "And to snatch it away the way the administration has, I think reaffirms the cruelty that is a point of the process, not just a side effect."
Naturalization ceremonies, like this one held in the Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School auditorium on Sept. 9, 2026, have become rare in the Cleveland area with many cancelations this summer.
Local immigration attorneys point to a series of administrative changes made by USCIS. Some changes add new steps or require officials to repeat earlier ones, while a "hold and review" policy stopped applicants from certain countries from making progress altogether.
Attorneys say clients aren't necessarily seeing ceremonies postponed as much as they're getting stuck earlier in the process, including delays in their naturalization interviews.
A naturalization interview is an in-person meeting with a USCIS officer who reviews the citizenship application and tests the applicant's English and civics knowledge. It is generally the last step before the applicant is scheduled to take the Oath of Allegiance.
But immigration attorneys Maya Lugasy of Brown Immigration Law and Richard Herman of Herman Legal Group said those interviews are being pushed back as officials vet cases, often repeating steps completed under the Biden administration.
Policy memos published by USCIS call for the resumption of neighborhood investigations, during which officers may visit applicants' homes or workplaces to verify their community standing and "good moral character."
USCIS has also said it would implement additional background checks, recapture applicants' biometrics, including fingerprints, conduct additional interviews and repeat reviews of the merits of refugee claims as part of its enhanced screening and vetting practices.
Lugasy said the policy changes are made quickly and implemented with no grace period, further slowing the process as immigrants and officials adjust.
"It's very effective in terms of gumming up the system," Lugasy said. "They've done a great job of that."
A travel ban implemented by Trump in late 2025, followed soon afterward by a "hold and review" policy from USCIS, prevented applicants from 39 countries from having their immigration benefits processed. Under the policy, people from the listed countries could not move forward with applications for visas, green cards or citizenship.
On Aug. 24, a federal court in California overturned the policy affecting the 39 countries.
Patrick Espinosa, managing partner of Sus Abogados Latinos, said he experienced the resulting delays firsthand while helping clients. He said the mix of extra steps and suspended applications has likely left USCIS workers spread thin.
Still, he was taken aback by the number of naturalization ceremonies that had been canceled. Espinosa called the ceremonies among the happiest days of many immigrants' lives. Patriotic music plays. New citizens and their families wear American flags or carry them in their pockets.
Two ceremonies are held each month at Cleveland's federal courthouse, but others take place at community landmarks and events, including the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and One World Day.
“There’s no reason why eligible people shouldn’t be naturalized," Espinosa said. "That’s the way our country’s always worked.”
Herman said many people are still eager to become citizens, even as they watch U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conduct deportations across the country.
He said his clients, many of whom are green card holders, are uneasy.
Herman said the "psychological cost" of the delays cannot be overestimated, adding he's not seen this kind of "chaos" or "aggression" across his 30-year career.
There nothing like it, I don't think in U.S. History, in terms of the numbers of memos, policy changes, restrictions," Herman said. " ... I mean, I’ve been practicing immigration law for over 30 years. I’ve never seen this chaos and aggression, hostility ever."
Faith Isaya attends a naturalization ceremony where she will become a U.S. Citizen.
Despite any delays, Isaya used words like "overwhelming," "exciting" and "happy" to describe becoming an American.
She said she saw the importance of the legal process and why it's needed to keep things fair as she went through it, even though her own journey was occasionally stopped.
Isaya said her ceremony was initially canceled because Tanzania was one of those countries where the USCIS stopped processing applications as they underwent further review.
She said she assumed officials were doing more background checks. But two weeks ago, before her ceremony, Isaya found out in the mail that she could move forward.
"It's actually so exciting," Isaya said. "I'm so happy and I've not told my mom about this because she was expecting it and it was canceled. So, I'm supposed to tell her after this and surprise her. So, it's so exciting and a relief knowing that, now I'm going to be settled."