Is Trump anxiety causing a spike in NYC marriages?

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Matthew Gibbs and Neil Wu planned to get married in November 2017, but they changed their plans after the events of this November.

"We weren't going to get married until next year, then after what happened in the election we decided to move it," Gibbs said.

The couple is one of many in the city who say they have rushed, or at least sped up their trip to the altar, because of uncertainty over President-elect Donald Trump's immigration policies and his promise to deport millions.

"As an immigrant, I feel like we should just get this done, get it out of the way so we know we can live happily ever after," said Wu, who was born in China and came to New York on a student visa.

"We weren't sure what was going to happen and we wanted to be sure," Gibbs said.

December is always a busy month for marriage licenses and ceremonies in New York City, but George Taxi, who has been selling wedding bouquets outside of the Marriage Bureau on Centre Street for three years, said this year has been different.

"This is the busiest I've ever seen it here," Taxi said. "I don't ask them why they're getting married, but I can assume the spike is due to Trump.

City Clerk Michael McSweeney said his office issued 23 percent more marriage licenses this November over the same month in 2015. As of last week, licenses were up 13 percent over December 2015.

"I've seen an increase in marriages and I've had an increase who wanted to come and talk about possibility of marriage," immigration lawyer Cheryl David said.

The New York Times reported that other states -- including Illinois, Florida, and California -- have also seen an uptick in marriages.

And while there is no hard evidence tying the increases to anxiety over a Trump presidency, David said he suspects they are linked.

"People are moving things up because they're afraid, they don't know what will happen in the future if there will be mass deportations," she said. "It's a way of protecting themselves to make sure the person they love is protected in the future."