5 million immigrants granted US citizenship can’t speak English

By Paul Bedard

Published July 12, 2017 7:12pm ET

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5 million immigrants granted US citizenship can’t speak English — A participant from Bangladesh takes the Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America Friday, June 30, 2017, during an naturalization ceremony at the New York Public Library in New York. Over 190 immigrants from 59 countries became American citizens at the fourth annual Independence Day naturalization ceremony hosted by the library. (AP Photo/Michael Noble Jr.) | Michael Noble Jr.

In a stunning indictment of the system that tests immigrants on their eligibility to become “naturalized citizens,” a new report finds that a third are functionally illiterate, unable to speak and understand enough English to get that status.

Some 32 percent of naturalized citizens, about 5 million, fall below “basic” skills in English, the equivalent of being functionally illiterate, according to a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies.

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