Vote is precious to new Americans
Path to citizenship can be long, difficult
Nearly a decade ago, and in the midst of a social uprising in her home country of Syria, Arwa Ghalawan and her husband, Wasim Almakki, and her daughter traveled to the U.S. to stay with relatives in Indiana.
Ghalawan was 19 at the time and didn’t pack more than clothes for her stay. It was only a vacation, she said.
“We knew we were going back,” Ghalawan said. “Our home, our jobs, my siblings, our family, everything was back home in Syria.”
But it became too dangerous to return. After two months in Indiana, as the Syrian civil war continued, the couple from afar dealt with losing many close relatives and friends to the war.
“People were out on the streets fighting, protesting, the people wanted freedom of speech, but the regime started killing them,” said Ghalawan, now 29.
They were approved for asylum in the U.S. in 2012. Later, they obtained their permanent resident status (green cards). And after years of immigration applications, costly fees and interviews, Ghalawan and her husband finally became U.S. citizens in 2019. They voted for the first time in the U.S. on Oct. 6, the first day of early voting.
Ghalawan said that in Syria today, people are still fighting for their freedom of speech. She had never voted, and though her husband voted only once in Syria, he was forced by the regime to do so.
That made exercising their right to vote in their community in Fishers all the more meaningful, Ghalawan said. She and her husband are among thousands of immigrant Hoosiers who recently became naturalized citizens and were eligible to vote for the first time.
“I am not taking this for granted. I have the right to speak, and I am going to speak up,” she said. “It’s an amazing, special feeling. Now my voice matters, and I feel like this is my home more than ever.”
In 2019, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalized 834,000 new citizens in the U.S., which was the highest amount of naturalizations in 11 years, spokesperson Dan Hetlage said in a statement.
Though the coronavirus pandemic has slowed some of the citizenship application processes, about 600,000 more immigrants are expected to become naturalized citizens in the U.S. by the end of the fiscal year, Hetlage said.
Over the past six years, 5 million people became U.S. citizens and could vote in the 2020 presidential election, according to the National Partnerships for New Americans’ Naturalize Now, Vote Tomorrow report.
To become a U.S. citizen, applicants must have a permanent resident status for at least five years or three years if married to a U.S. citizen, proof of good moral character by filing taxes every year, and must not have committed any disqualifying crime. The person must also pass a civics test, with a study guide of about 100 questions.
People who are permanent residents cannot vote, are subject to deportation and cannot live outside the U.S. for more than six months.
But the journey to naturalization isn’t easy, and not all immigrants qualify to become a permanent resident and a citizen. Entering the country with authorization and a visa plays a big role in whether a person qualifies to gain permanent resident status and eventually become a U.S. citizen.
Depending on the country of origin and the socioeconomic status of a person or family, visas aren’t easily attainable to everyone, and there are not that many available to meet the demand, immigration attorney Angela Adams of Adams Immigration Law in Indianapolis told IndyStar, part of the USA TODAY Network.
“It’s very complicated. There are no work visas available for factory workers or for manufacturing positions; we don’t have temporary, non-immigrant visas for those positions,” Adams said. “We have very few for agriculture and for landscaping. Those (visas) run out.”
So when a person or a family enters the country without a visa and without inspection or authorization, it’s almost impossible to fix their immigration status in the United States, Adams said.
The process, depending on each person or family’s circumstance, can be expensive. There are immigration attorney fees – for those who chose to hire an attorney – and application filing fees to consider in the journey to naturalization. To apply to become a permanent resident, filing fees start at more than $700. The application fee for naturalization is $750, according to the Citizenship and Immigration Services website.
Luisa Lopez-Macer, 26, understands first-hand the complexities of the immigration process. When she was 5, her parents brought her and her two older siblings to the United States on a visitor visa. The family, who has lived in Indiana since, was fleeing violence in Mexico City and remained in the country after their visas expired.
For several years the family was undocumented and didn’t have many options to fix their status, she said. But as a teen, she was able to qualify for the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Later, her older siblings obtained their green cards and became citizens through marriage, which then qualified them to petition their parents to obtain green cards and become citizens.
Lopez-Macer was the last one in her family to obtain her citizenship. Her journey to Sept. 24 – the day she obtained her naturalization certificate – took years and a lot of work, money and sacrifice, she said.
She planned to vote for the first time on Election Day.
“It felt so surreal to look down and see the (naturalization) certificate and just think back to all the challenges and obstacles that we have to overcome to get this piece of paper that for so many is such an unattainable American dream,” Lopez-Macer said. “I feel even more proud to be a Latina. This day has finally come and I feel empowered to say, ‘It’s finally my turn.’ ”
For Celia Campbell of Indianapolis, obtaining her citizenship was easier. Campbell, 37, who is originally from Ontario, Canada, had been living in Indiana with a green card since the late ’80s. Her father was able to obtain a visa through his job when she was a child, which allowed the family to fix their status to live in the United States, she said.
Campbell debated whether she’d become a U.S. citizen or return to live in Canada. But the outcome of the election in 2016 changed her mind, she said.
“It was a big wake-up call for me,” she said. “Up until that point, I had been quite frankly very privileged that I wasn’t concerned about having a voice in our political process.”
After about 30 years in the U.S., Campbell became a citizen this month and voted for the first time on Oct. 16.
“I felt like I had to do this for the sake of my community, the community that I love so much,” Campbell said. “You waste such an important part of your voice and such an opportunity to help your community when you don’t vote.”
For Audrey Upcoft of Fishers, her naturalization certificate, her citizenship, her right to vote validate her work and contributions to the country she now calls home, she said.
Upcroft, 37, who is originally from Barranquilla, Colombia, has lived in Indiana since 2014. She came to Indiana on a tourist visa and stayed after she met her husband, who is a citizen.
Upcroft has worked as a waitress and a housekeeper, painted home exteriors, cared for the elderly and is now a family support specialist for a foster care support services organization. She became a citizen in July and was ready to vote for the first time.
“Having the right to vote is like a recognition of what we’ve had to do to get here,” she said. “Each of us, each immigrant, has a different story and a different experience. But we all have one thing in common: We all want a better life just like any other human being.”
“I am not taking this for granted. I have the right to speak, and I am going to speak up.”
Arwa Ghalawan, Syrian American who voted for the first time this year