50 TAKE CITIZENSHIP OATH, EAGERLY AWAIT NEXT VOTE
Naturalized residents encouraged to cast ballots, run for public office
Miriam Arellano doesn’t remember the fever that nearly killed her as a baby, or how her father crossed the U.S. border from Mexico in a desperate attempt to save her.
His journey took him from a bleak life in Michoacan state to Florida, where a job earning $20 a day laying tile was waiting for him. That trek and her new right to vote were on Arellano’s mind Wednesday afternoon as she raised her right hand and swore an oath of allegiance to the United States.
“I was dying. They were so poor, so they had no way for a visa or anything to come to the United States,” Arellano tearfully said. “He did what any parent would do to help save his daughter and provide for his family. He came to the states.”
Arellano, 29, was among 50 others — more than a dozen of whom were also from Mexico — who packed Houston City Hall to earn their citizenship a day after the election.
U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore pointed to the heated midterm, which saw Sen. Ted Cruz narrowly beating Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Democrats seizing the House, as an example of how to put their citizenship to good use.
“You missed the opportunity to vote by one day, but you now have the right to vote,” Gilmore said to the crowd of new citizens.
And if they take exception to their own election officials, Gilmore suggested they try their own hand at politics since they now “have the right.” After all, for example, former Somali refugee Ilhan Omar was elected Tuesday night in Minnesota and will become one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress.
“If there are people who are not
doing what they’re supposed to be doing in public office, then you have to step up and be the ones that run,” Gilmore said.
Texas Tech University graduate Julian Ocana, originally from Medellin, Colombia, wanted the freedom to cast his vote Tuesday, but his citizenship came too late.
“The candidate I wanted to win here in Texas didn’t win,” Ocana, referring to O’Rourke’s loss. “I’m still happy to see the results in and that there can be a possible change in the future … Hopefully (Cruz will) do better things for Hispanics. I think I’m already expecting more of the same.”
Ruben Romo came to the U.S. from Mexico as well, but for love. He met his future wife, Alice Romo, at a dance club in Mexico and 13 years ago moved north of the border to be with her.
As for casting a ballot, “Next time,” he said.
After being handed her citizenship certificate, Arellano spoke of how her father’s hard-earned cash was sent back to Mexico for her medical treatment. When she was healthy again, she and her mother crossed the Rio Grande in 1990 to join him. Her parents, who live in Dallas, are still seeking their U.S. citizenship. She went on to graduate as valedictorian in Dallas before earning a management degree from the University of Texas in Austin. She now works as an IT analyst in Houston.
But those nearly three decades as an undocumented migrant weighed on her because of the uncertainty. She often feared she would be deported to a country she hardly knew.
“It feels surreal because it’s been several years in the making. I know a lot of people take it for granted,” Arellano said. “I’m going to take this very seriously because it’s giving other people who don’t have the right to voice their opinion through a vote to be able to do that for the future of society.”
New citizens in the naturalization ceremony came from several countries, including Argentina, Cameroon, Canada, El Salvador, Honduras, Hungary, India, Iran, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Turkey, Venezuela, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.