March 10, 2020

Duckworth Condemns USCIS for Failing to Follow Civil Rights Law for Blind Man Seeking Citizenship Test

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) wrote to Kevin Riddle, Field Office Director at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), urging the agency immediately reverse course and provide Lucio Delgado, a blind man who is a legal permanent resident living in Illinois, with proper accommodations for his upcoming citizenship test. According to reports, last week USCIS failed to provide Mr. Delgado with a Braille test, which was part of his request for the reasonable accommodations required by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. As a result, he failed his citizenship test, despite passing the portions of the citizenship exam that did not require vision to complete.

“USCIS’s inability to provide Mr. Delgado the accommodations needed for him to take the reading portion of the citizenship exam should not bar him from becoming a U.S. citizen,” Duckworth wrote. “He has cleared all other parts of the naturalization process, including most of the citizenship exam, and demonstrated his understanding of the English language and U.S. civics. Mr. Delgado’s family came to this country in part so that could receive better accommodations for his disability. I am asking that USCIS do just this and provide Mr. Delgado a path forward that properly accommodates for his disability.”

A full copy of the letter is available below and online here.

Mr. Kevin Riddle

Field Office Director

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Field Office

101 W. Ida B. Wells Drive

Chicago, IL 60605

Dear Field Office Director Riddle:

I am writing in support of granting U.S. citizenship to Mr. Lucio Delgado, a blind man whom U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) failed to provide proper accommodations for during his citizenship test. I urge USCIS to take swift action to provide Mr. Delgado all necessary and proper accommodations throughout the rest of his naturalization process, including for Mr. Delgado’s third citizenship test on March 13, 2020.

Mr. Delgado is a 23-year-old legal permanent resident who has lived in the United States for the past six years and is currently seeking U.S. citizenship. Mr. Delgado is also legally blind as result of being born with Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), an eye disorder that primarily affects premature infants. ROP is one of the most common causes of visual loss during childhood and can lead, as it did for Mr. Delgado, to complete and lifelong blindness.

According to public reports, USCIS received Mr. Delgado’s request for reasonable accommodations but failed to provide the reading test in Braille and instead only offered the exam in large print both times he attempted to take it. Being 100 percent blind and without proper accommodations, Mr. Delgado was unable to complete this portion of the exam and failed.

USCIS’s inability to provide Mr. Delgado the accommodations needed for him to take the reading portion of the citizenship exam should not bar him from becoming a U.S. citizen. He has cleared all other parts of the naturalization process, including most of the citizenship exam, and demonstrated his understanding of the English language and U.S. civics. Mr. Delgado’s family came to this country in part so that could receive better accommodations for his disability. I am asking that USCIS do just this and provide Mr. Delgado a path forward that properly accommodates for his disability.

Please do the right thing in providing Mr. Delgado full support and assistance in attaining U.S. citizenship, which includes providing all written materials in Braille or an alternative method that accommodates for his blindness. Thank you in advance for your consideration of my reasonable request on behalf of Mr. Delgado.

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