Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck’s office planned to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United State’s independence with four large-scale naturalization ceremonies with approximately 100 people per event.

Instead, recent ceremonies saw a decline in attendance, with the first ceremony having 36 people and the second one 16. Now, the United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) has cancelled Ulster County’s September ceremony. In 2025, a December ceremony was cancelled as well, due to what the agency said was insufficient numbers.

“I've been here 10 years now, and there hasn't ever been one canceled for this reason before last year. In fact, there's a backlog of folks. That’s why we started hosting them at larger venues to try to get through the backlog,” Bruck said. “Then suddenly last year there's not enough for a single ceremony. So it does seem like something on their end is changing.”

According to Bruck, he asked what the minimum number of participants was needed to hold a naturalization ceremony, but has yet to receive a specific number — only that there were not enough people. Bruck also called it “embarrassing” that President Donald Trump’s administration says “that you want people to do it the right way, and then make it virtually impossible for them to do it the right way.”

“The goalposts on this keep moving. Technically, they're not undocumented because they have documents,” Bruck said. “They are in the process of becoming naturalized, but as we've seen in New York City, where they posted ICE agents outside of immigration courts, it doesn't seem like anything is off limits anymore.”

Bruck said that his office has reached out to representatives at the federal level, such as U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer to find answers and a way to get the people who were supposed to be naturalized “across the finish line.” Bruck noted that this approach worked the last time the naturalization ceremony was cancelled, stating that legal migration is a “fairly bipartisan thing.”

As for those who were supposed to receive their citizenship, Bruck said that he “can’t even imagine” what they are feeling “especially given the current climate that is not friendly to non-naturalized citizens whatsoever.”

“A lot of these folks have been waiting years and years to get to this point, and to have their eligibility continue to be questioned, it has to be incredibly frustrating and scary,” Bruck said. “I just want everyone waiting to know that we're doing everything we can. Our local elected officials are all behind them, and we're trying to get them through the finish line.”