Naturalization ceremony swears in 50 new citizens
Wearing church dresses and saris, business suits and jeans, 50 people were seated Friday in an upper-floor room in the U.S. District Court building on West Capitol Avenue, ready to become Americans.
Three rows of seats for aspiring citizens were almost full, with just a few empty chairs placed next to people who came to the ceremony with an interpreter. Behind them, family members and supporters crammed the back of the room, accompanied by a number of small children who sat on laps clutching crayons, cellphones or miniature American flags.
Twenty minutes before the ceremony was to begin, Court Clerk James McCormack approached a podium to ask if anyone would mind if they started a little early — a suggestion that was met with affirmations and cheers.
“This is an official court proceeding,” he reminded the crowd, “but it is one of the few occasions where everybody leaves happy.”
Over a 10-day period that began Friday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will administer an oath of allegiance to almost 45,000 new citizens at 260 ceremonies across the United States. At the ceremony in Little Rock — one of six that typically take place in Arkansas throughout the year, McCormack said — people from 13 countries were set to swear their dedication to the U.S. and receive naturalized citizenship.
They included Hugo A. Morales, a safety trainer at Tyson Foods whose 13-yearold daughter waited behind him. He arrived in the U.S. from Mexico 23 years ago, but he recently applied for citizenship because “[with] all the current political situation, you are not assured being here with only your green card,” he said. “And also because I love this country.”
In another row sat Kim Nguyen, a 30-year-old manicurist from Vietnam who lives in west Little Rock. After the ceremony, she planned to apply for a U.S. passport so she can visit family back in Ho Chi Minh City, having missed her
sister’s wedding last year.
“I’m just afraid if I go out, I cannot go back over here,” she said. “I’m really excited right now.”
The nonprofit American Immigration Council reports that in Arkansas, about 5 percent of the population in 2015, or 142,841 people, were immigrants. That same year, the Center for Migration Studies think tank said 25,362 Arkansans were eligible for naturalization.
Between 700,000 and 750,000 people participate in naturalization ceremonies annually, according to a fact sheet from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It’s the final step in a bureaucratic process that can drag on for years.
“It can be a very circuitous process. … The kind of fabled pathway to citizenship isn’t direct at all,” said Casey Bryant, the legal director for immigrant rights group Arkansas United.
Bryant said the biggest hurdle for many is becoming eligible to apply for naturalization, which often requires lawful permanent residency in the U.S. for at least five years. There are exceptions, including for people who are married to a U.S. citizen, for those who served in the military and a few others.
After meeting eligibility requirements, applicants must be interviewed, pass an English test and a 10-question civics test, answer questions about their “moral character,” pass a biometric background screening and pay fees that total $725, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services fee schedules.
Beth Zilberman, associate professor of law and director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, said the paperwork involved can be daunting, and some people — especially those who live in communities where they primarily speak their first language — worry about the English test.
“The language is definitely an issue we see a lot … especially from older people; they’re afraid that their English isn’t good enough,” Zilberman said.
Despite these obstacles, Bryant said she’s seen a recent uptick in the number of people who have approached Arkansas United asking for help with naturalization, feeling that “undocumented people are under siege.”
During President Donald Trump’s administration, there have been a number of controversies related to immigration, including disagreements among politicians about socalled sanctuary cities, the role and authority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the separation and detainment of migrant parents and children as they tried to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, which prompted an outcry this year.
It’s created uncertainty for people who are waiting to formalize their citizenship, with special challenges for immigrants in largely rural Arkansas, Bryant said.
“They’re really out there for people to see … [in much of this state] immigrant people can’t blend in as easily as they can in the city,” she said. “More and more people are wanting to finally go ahead and apply [for naturalization].”
David Moshe Asif was among the group of 50 people on Friday morning who waited quietly facing U.S. and Arkansas flags as a Citizenship and Immigration Services representative read a court motion vouching for the immigration office’s inspection of the applicants.
Asif and his wife Samantha had dealt with immigration issues since marrying 12 years ago. He’s originally from Pakistan, and Samantha lived on her own with their kids for six years while they tried to sort out his immigration status.
“[Today is] great, it’s great, it’s a blessing. We’ve been struggling,” he said. “[And the] religious freedom is an extra bonus.”
With the group, Asif raised his right hand during the recitation of the naturalization oath, which renounces allegiance to any former country and swears dedication to the Constitution and U.S. law, and “that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, so help you God.”
The new citizens then lined up to collect naturalization certificates and announce their names and country of origin, one by one, into a microphone: Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, India, Guatemala, the Philippines and many other places, with a few people adding “God bless America” or “thank God for this country.” Asif thanked his wife.
“This is a great day for all of us,” Judge Jerome T. Kearney, who presided over Friday’s ceremony, told the group. “I know all of you worked hard and persevered to have this day come.”
Before adjourning, Kearney told the new citizens about being one of 19 children from a family of Lincoln County cotton sharecroppers. Though his childhood home had no running water and the whole family worked in the fields, he said 18 of those children grew up to have college degrees, and 10 of them are lawyers.
“The opportunity is here. You’re now citizens of a great country that allows you opportunities, if you will simply take advantage of them. … There’s fruits aplenty to share,” he said.
But he also reminded the group of an American tradition of being “eager to serve,” invoking Teddy Roosevelt’s remark that “this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.”
After the ceremony, participants mobbed the judge for photos or decamped to collect information about passport applications and U.S. Postal Service products and services from vendors. People lingered in the light-filled courthouse entryway, posing for photos and embracing.
Sophia White and her husband Tommie, who met at a Chinese restaurant her aunt and uncle run in Conway, stood in a hallway to chat with a reporter about their plans to travel to Taiwan and take her 85-year-old father on a cruise.
Despite her green card, they’d had difficulty on previous trips coming back through immigration at the Los Angeles airport, and she was excited to file for a U.S. passport. “I don’t have to worry,” she said.
Daisy Guevara Vasquez, from Benton, prepared to depart the ceremony and celebrate her 52nd birthday, which was that same day.
She came to the U.S. 11 years ago to serve in a church ministry, and said the ceremony made her feel “special and grateful.”
“Thank you, God, because I was born in El Salvador, but now I was born in the United States,” she said. “It gives me a second chance.”