Applications for U.S. citizenship are on the rise, both in Kern County and nationwide.

Nationally, some believe that the increase is because people want to vote against Trump.

"Many of the things they're responding to are the stereotyping, the building of the wall comment, the anti-Muslim rhetoric," said Nicole Melaku of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.

"I mean a lot of folks are like, 'this really cannot happen'."

According to an article from the New York Times, only 36% of eligible Mexicans in America have become citizens. That trend can also be seen in Kern County.

"In Kern County there are slightly over 50,000 people who are eligible to naturalize but haven't taken that next step yet," said Marichel Mejia of the United Farm Workers Foundation.

But this year, the UFW Foundation says that they've seen the spike in naturalization firsthand locally.

"A lot of folks in the community are interested in becoming citizens. For the last couple of weeks, our offices have been very full."

The UFW Foundation wasn't able to speak politically because of their non-profit status, but they said that the increase during this election year isn't coincidental.

"There's a lot of different issues people care about. We know that a lot of people care about immigration and would maybe want their voice to be heard on that topic."