Mired in the thick of the haranguing, posturing and victim-playing that has characterized the illegal immigration debates of late, one often ignored point is that of the legal route to citizenship – clearly defined, accepted and approved in true bipartisanship spirit and utilized by more than 700,000 brand new U.S. citizens last year.

Last week the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services released a new list of questions for the civics and history portion of the naturalization process. Potential citizens are asked ten out of the 100 possible questions, as well as interviewed and given a basic reading and writing English test. USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez expressed hope that the new test “will encourage citizenship applicants to learn and identify with the basic civic values that unite us as Americans.”

According to the USCIS press release, the aim of the test is to “strengthen assimilation efforts by emphasizing fundamental concepts of American democracy, basic U.S. history and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. It will also promote patriotism among prospective citizens.”

The new test focuses more on these broader concepts and has dropped questions of a more trivial nature. Critical concepts such as rule of law, checks and balances and self-government make their debut while “Who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner?” and “What is the name of the ship that brought the pilgrims to America?” have been delegated to the realm of “Jeopardy.”

It also places greater emphasis on knowing contemporary leaders. Patrick Henry is out; Nancy Pelosi is in (for now, at least.) In addition, the test retains a solid roster of your basic high school U.S. civics questions – when the Constitution was written, how many justices are on the Supreme Court, how long the terms of U.S. representatives are.

The test was piloted on 6,000 citizenship applicants in 10 districts across the country, from El Paso to Boston. The pass rate for the new test is 92 percent, an increase from the current 84 percent rate. A higher pass rate and a better test? A winning combination indeed.

Or so you might think. Fred Tsao, policy director for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights in Chicago said, “Our worst fears have been realized. We did not want this test to become more of a burden, and it has.” This sentiment is echoed in the ICIRR’s press release, which calls the questions dealing with rule of law and who the president was during World War I “abstract” and “irrelevant.” Pretty weak criticisms, especially in light of the higher pass rate. Is the ICIRR fighting for immigrant rights or just against the ever-oppressive establishment?

Another aspersion leveled at the new test is a conservative bias. Karen K. Narasaki, director of the Asian American Justice Center, took issue with a question asking for one of the authors of the Federalist Papers. “This seems to be something pushed by Conservatives with a conservative agenda,” Narasaki said.

Of course. The Federalist Papers, written by such iconic men as Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, do not represent a pivotal step in the writing of the most important document in our nation’s history. Rather a mention of them is just one more instance of Conservatives trying to gain unfair dominance in the hearts and minds of U.S. immigrants. Conservative agenda? It’s not as though there’s a question about Barry Goldwater.

Finally, some discredit the test on the grounds that many Americans would not know all the answers. This accusation does not make sense. The point of the test should not be that new citizens only have to know as much as the dumbest native-born Americans. I’ve known people who didn’t know the number of states in the union – is this the standard we should set? Hardly.

New citizens should have a sense of ownership here, a grasp of our history, an understanding of our principles. It would be impossible to whittle all this down into 100 questions, but it’s an admirable attempt.