The immigration process includes years of hurdles to get to citizenship, from the initial application to getting a green card, needing to legally hold it for three to five years and then actually going through the naturalization process.

Newsy's Ben Schamisso and 25 other immigrants became U.S. citizens at a federal courthouse in Chicago last Friday. It was a solemn and emotional moment years in the making.

"I took the oath and that was it, so I am an American citizen and it feels pretty good, Schamisso said. "It's a new day."

Because his wife is American, he was able to move to the U.S. from Belgium in 2015 with a green card.

He's been qualified for citizenship since 2018 but only started filling out the 20-page naturalization form in late 2020. At the time, the Trump administration planned to soon double the filing fee from $640 to nearly $1,200. The fee hike never materialized, but it did push him to apply.

A year later, Schamisso received an appointment for the infamous naturalization interview, when applicants are tested on their knowledge of English and civics. During the civics part, an officer asks 10 questions from a list of 100, and test-takers need six correct answers to pass.  

A 2018 national survey found that only one in three Americans would pass the test. He passed with one "frustrating" wrong answer.

“The question was, ‘What are the three first words of the U.S. Constitution?’ and I said quickly, ‘We are the people.’ Then I said, ‘No, it's actually we the people,' but that was too late," Schamisso said.

The interview also includes dozens of questions about the applicant's background. 

"About whether I was a member of any terrorist organization or a communist, or whether I had committed any crime, whether I had spent time in jail," Schamisso said. "Every single crime you can think of, they asked if I had committed it.” 

In the end, it was all worth it, with Schamisso saying the ceremony alone made him proud of the achievement. The U.S. government naturalized about 625,000 new citizens in the fiscal year 2020, and more than 7.3 million immigrants over the last decade.  

While Schamisso is from Europe, most naturalized Americans hail from Mexico, India, and the Philippines.  

The case of his, with his wife sponsoring him, is how it goes in about 28% of cases. Come November, he'll be allowed to vote in U.S. elections for the first time as a new American. 

This story was originally published by Ben Schamisso of Newsy

Despite scorching temperatures, migrants continue to arrive at the southern border in ever-growing numbers.

“You can't compare this current surge to anything that's happened in the past,” said Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council. 

Judd tells Newsy the surge is severely overwhelming the roughly 18,000 agents he represents.  

“Over the weekend we were holding 10,000 people in custody. We don't have the number of agents to watch 10,000 people,” Judd said. 

New government estimates show last month the U.S. took into custody around 210,000 migrants — the highest monthly total in over 20 years and a significant increase from previous months. 

As a result, Border Patrol facilities are now up to 700% over capacity. That means more officers supervising migrants in custody and less agents patrolling the border.

“Our agents aren't actually on the border doing the job they were hired to do,” Judd said, adding that one agent could be assigned to watch 600 immigrants.

“There's no way in the world that one person is going to be able to ensure the safety and protection of all of those 600 people in that pod," he said.

Judd has been in the Border Patrol for over 20 years and was a supporter and close ally of President Donald Trump. 

While some observers point to unrest in Central America and beyond as the driving force behind the migration surge, Judd blames President Biden’s policies. 

“People are crossing the border illegally knowing that they're going to be released into the United States never to have to leave this country,” Judd said.  

The Biden administration is keeping in place a Trump policy allowing it to expel most migrants during the pandemic. But it’s also releasing into the country an increasing number of families and unaccompanied children.  

Judd says that’s not only encouraging more people to migrate, it’s also a COVID hazard.  

“In the Rio Grande Valley right now, we've got over 80 agents that are out with COVID-19,” he said. 

At the same time, his union supports agents who are hesitant to get vaccines they consider “experimental.” 

NEWSY'S BEN SCHAMISSO: "I'm not sure I follow how you can be concerned with COVID-19 on the one hand, and on the other hand also understand why some agents would refuse to be vaccinated."  

JUDD: “There's other mitigating ways that you can take care of COVID: You can wear PPE, you can social distance, you can do all of those different things to mitigate COVID.” 

As for the Biden White House, it blames Donald Trump’s dismantling of the asylum system for the rush at the border. 

Administration officials say they’re working hard to rebuild a "fair, orderly, and humane immigration system, including by expanding lawful pathways to the United States and discouraging irregular migration.” 

This story was originally reported by Ben Schamisso on Newsy.com.

President Joe Biden was interrupted during a Georgia rally on Thursday by protesters urging him to close ICE jails.

In an exclusive interview with Newsy, one of the protesters, a transgender woman from Mexico who spent 13 months in ICE detention, says now is the time for a change.

"We want accountability. We went to support you, we went to support our two senators from Georgia. This is time to bring back to the community," says Estrella Sanchez.

President Biden responded to Sanchez and her fellow activists on stage.

"There should be no private prisons, period. None, period. That's what they're talking about: private detention centers. They should not exist. And we are working to close all of them," he said. 

The president then told the hecklers to give him five days. He later clarified to reporters he was "teasing" the activists about the timeframe. 

Either way, Sanchez says she'll continue to pressure him to fulfill his campaign pledge to end private immigration jails because she knows firsthand what they're like.

"I've been humiliated when I went to those detention centers as being Indigenous, as being trans. It's not easy to stay in solitary confinement for 13 months," Sanchez recalls. 

She says she was kept in solitary confinement as a protection against harassment from other inmates. But she says the isolation left her scarred.   

"The conditions were inhumane. The conditions were very painful," she said.

Before the pandemic, the Trump administration was expanding the detention system at a record pace by detaining more immigrants without criminal convictions.

But then COVID-19 forced ICE to dramatically step back. 

Advocates say this presents the perfect opportunity for President Biden.

"It simply makes no sense that we detain people who pose no threat to public safety simply based on their immigration status," said John Sandweg, a former ICE director in the Obama administration. 

But immigration hardliners counter that detention facilities, private or not, ensure immigrants show up to their court hearings and protect the public amid a historic migration surge at the border.

"They are detaining the worst of their population. And these are not people that you would want released back onto the street," said Lora Ries, a former Homeland Security official in the Trump administration.

As for Sanchez, she was released from ICE detention in 2013 after facing a serious attack from another inmate.

For the next five years, her movements were monitored by an electronic ankle bracelet. 

She eventually won her asylum case in 2018 after documenting the sexual persecution she faced as a transgender woman in Mexico.

Ben Schamisso at Newsy first reported this story.