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