Bilingual learning center requesting Spanish translation be added to civics test

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The Women's Intercultural Center in Anthony, New Mexico, is urging U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to upload a Spanish guide for the 2025 civics test. The center has helped legal residents apply for U.S. citizenship for over 32 years.

The center claims it creates barriers for students preparing for U.S. citizenship.

“We are ready to teach, we are ready to serve, yet we cannot prepare our Spanish-speaking students without access to the official translation,” said Mary Carter, Executive Director and Citizenship Instructor at the Women’s Intercultural Center. “Citizenship is a right and a responsibility, and language access is essential for both.”

According to national data, Spanish is the second most common language in the U.S., with about 13% of the population speaking Spanish.

The center offers a space for borderland women to learn and collaborate on developing their social, spiritual, economic, and political potential; they also offer bilingual citizenship classes.

USCIS has a policy where applicants can be exempt from the English language requirement, but still must take the civics test if you are:

• Age 50 or older at the time of filing for naturalization and have lived as a permanent resident (Green Card holder) in the United States for 20 years (the “50/20” exception).
• OR
• Age 55 or older at the time of filing for naturalization and have lived as a permanent resident in the United States for 15 years (the “55/15” exception).

"So it's very important to have the appropriate tools and resources, and having the actual guide to the civic questions is crucial to support Spanish-speaking applicants," said Executive Director Carter. "We do our own curriculum because we focus on alternative education, and because of that, we create our own curriculum, which has been successful since 2008, with a 100% success rate in passing because we prepare them specifically for it."

"We teach our students that they have to learn the responses to the civic questions exactly as they are written. The phrases, especially with these 128 civic questions, are often idiomatic, and because they are phrases, there are different ways to translate them. So, we need to have the exact vocabulary to give them the correct answers to study."

When visiting the USCIS website, the Spanish version is visible; however, clicking on it leads to the English version.

"We definitely want to correct the error, and we want to make sure we have it for ourselves. We are trying to push to get access to this before January, when our classes start in the spring, and we want to ensure everyone is prepared," Executive Director Carter added. "We also want everyone to be aware so we can advocate for it to be uploaded correctly, because it doesn't take much to upload that file."

"We all need to have the correct answers for those individuals, and even for those who research and have the capacity to do it, they should have the tools and resources to become naturalized citizens," Executive Director Carter said.

ABC-7 reached out to the USCIS national office for comment and to learn why a Spanish version has not been uploaded; they are working to provide us with an answer.