Acting Director Jonathan Scharfen
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
20 Massachusetts Ave NW
4th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20529
Re: Religious Oath at Immigration Website
Dear Director:
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a not-for-profit group with more than 12,000 members nationwide that works to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state. In recent months we have taken several complaints, both from our own members and from members of the general public, about a situation they are encountering with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Your website currently gives the “Oath of Allegiance for Naturalized Citizens.”
This oath ends “so help me God.” We are pleased to see that Title 8 of the Code of Federal Regulations actually provides for a secular affirmation:
When a petitioner or applicant for naturalization, by reason of religious training and belief (or individual interpretation thereof), or for other reasons of good conscience, cannot take the oath prescribed in paragraph (a) of this section with the words “on oath” and “so help me God” included, the words “and solemnly affirm” shall be substituted for the words “on oath,” the words “so help me God” shall be deleted, and the oath shall be taken in such modified form.
USCIS Adjudicator’s Field Manual 75.1, the policy handbook for officials presiding over the naturalization process, likewise states:
Some applicants who, “by reason of religious training and belief (or individual interpretation thereof), or for other reasons of good conscience” cannot take the oath with the words “on oath,” and “so help me God” included. In these cases, the words “solemnly affirm” shall be substituted for the words “on oath,” and the words “so help me God” shall be deleted…. This modification may be granted upon the applicant’s request. Applicants are not required to provide documentary evidence or extensive testimony to support a request for this type of modification.
The problem is that these rights are not delineated at the webpage listing the actual oath. It therefore amounts to a situation in which the federal government appears to favor those those who believe in a god over those who do not, which is a violation of the law. Such favoritism is prohibited by the Constitution. See, e.g., Committee for Public Education & Religious Liberty v. Nyquist, 413 U.S. 756, 771 (1973).
On behalf of complainants nationwide, we respectfully request that the immigration office remedy the omission of affirmations at your website, on any forms repeating the standard religious oath and at all naturalization ceremonies. We would prefer that the Office drop the unnecessary religious oath altogether. The U.S. Constitution itself is godless, and prohibits a religious test for public office (Art. 6), so it seems ironic and dismaying that new citizens should be routinely expected to make a religious oath in order to become citizens of our secular republic. This hardly engenders a respect for the constitutional principle of separation between church and state that is the bedrock of our nation. Ideally, the reference to a deity should be entirely deleted, but if not, at minimum, we ask that the Office include full references to the right to affirm or avoid swearing to a god wherever the religious oath appears or is used—whether that is at a government website, on the actual form, or during the naturalization ceremony itself. All new citizens can be introduced to the all-American principle that the government does not intrude into personal religious beliefs, and that they have a choice whether or not to believe in a god, or whether or not to swear to such belief.
We would ask that the website omission be remedied immediately, and that your Office inform us of what steps it is taking to ensure that rights of conscience are protected for all new and prospective citizens during the entire step of the naturalization process.
Very truly yours,
Annie Laurie Gaylor
FREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION
