Why is there not a rating on this post? There’s not enough verified evidence for us to definitively confirm or debunk this rumor. Contact us if you have credible information to share. We’ll update this post as necessary.
In late 2025, a rumor spread online that as immigrants in Boston arrived for their U.S. citizenship ceremony, officials pulled people out of line and told them they could not proceed due to their countries of origin.
The claim circulated on X, Reddit and Facebook. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, was among those posting the assertion. She shared a screenshot of an article with the headline: “Immigrants kept from Faneuil Hall citizenship ceremony as feds crackdown nationwide.” In her caption, Warren added:
At a citizenship ceremony, Trump officials asked immigrants: “what country are you from?”
Instead of being allowed to pledge allegiance to America, some were rejected due to where they were born.
This happened in Boston.
It’s outrageous and unAmerican — and it must stop.
The allegation originated from a Dec. 5 report by WGBH (archived), a Boston news station, which specified the officials belonged to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. WGBH spoke to Gail Breslow, executive director of Project Citizenship, a nonprofit organization providing legal services to immigrants in New England.
According to Breslow, a Haitian woman in her 50s, who was one of the organization’s clients, showed up to her oath ceremony Dec. 4 at Faneuil Hall in Boston. Officials reportedly turned her away because of her country of origin. The woman was said to have declined to share her name publicly or speak with media; therefore, it was not possible to verify the Haitian woman’s story. In an email to Snopes, Breslow said the WGBH report was factual and that Breslow was accurately quoted.
The report aligned with the timing of a Dec. 2 USCIS memo that halted all immigration applications for migrants from 19 countries listed in an earlier travel ban, including Haiti. Snopes also confirmed via an archived version of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts’ naturalization ceremony schedule that an oath ceremony was indeed scheduled for Dec. 4 at Faneuil Hall, as WGBH reported.
Thus, the claim came from reputable sources and aligned with the facts at hand. However, because it was not possible to independently verify the specific details of the alleged incident, we have not rated this claim.
In an emailed statement, the Department of Homeland Security did not explicitly confirm that the agency directed officers to question people in line for citizenship ceremonies about their country of origin and turn them away depending on their answers.
“USCIS has paused all adjudications for aliens from high-risk countries while USCIS works to ensure that all aliens from these countries are vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” a DHS spokesperson said. “The pause will allow for a comprehensive examination of all pending benefit requests for aliens from the designated high-risk countries. The safety of the American people always come first.”
A spokesperson for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu sent Snopes an audio of recording of Wu describing the alleged incident as “despicable” and saying that “it doesn’t reflect who we are as a country.” She added: “It’s horrible for the people who have been trying so desperately to be full community members in this country and go through this [citizenship] process.”
Report: ‘People were plucked out of line’
Here’s what WGBH reported about the incident (emphasis ours):
Immigrants approved to be naturalized went to Faneuil Hall Thursday — known as the country’s cradle of liberty — for that long-awaited moment to pledge allegiance to the United States. But instead, as they lined up, some were told by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials that they couldn’t proceed due to their countries of origin.
The same situation is playing out at naturalization events across the country as USCIS directed its employees to halt adjudicating all immigration pathways for people from 19 countries deemed to be “high risk”.
“One of our clients said that she had gone to her oath ceremony because she hadn’t received the cancellation notice in time,” said Gail Breslow, executive director of Project Citizenship. “She showed up as scheduled, and when she arrived, officers were asking everyone what country they were from, and if they said a certain country, they were told to step out of line and that their oath ceremonies were canceled.”
That client, a Haitian woman in her 50s, has had a green card since the early 2000s and started working with Project Citizenship in January. She declined an interview request through Breslow.
“People are devastated and they’re frightened,” Breslow told GBH News. “People were plucked out of line. They didn’t cancel the whole ceremony.”
She said many clients with upcoming ceremonies and USCIS appointments have received cancellations via an online portal. She shared an example of the notices they’re receiving, which provide no further guidance or instructions.
Breslow told Snopes that of Project Citizenship’s clients, she knew of only one — the Haitian woman — who went to their oath ceremony and was told it was canceled based on their country of origin. Other clients, she said, received the notification of cancelation ahead of time and simply did not attend. As of the morning of Dec. 8, the woman in question had still not received an official notice of her oath ceremony cancelation, Breslow said.
She added that clients of MIRA Coalition, another immigration service organization, went through similar situations. In an emailed statement, MIRA Coalition’s executive director, Elizabeth Sweet, said at least five of its clients had their oath of citizenship at Faneuil Hall canceled but did not state that any of them were pulled out of line.
Here’s the example oath ceremony cancelation notice provided by Project Citizenship to WGBH:
For more on the USCIS directive that suspended immigration applications for immigrants from travel ban countries, see Snopes’ explanation of its contents.
