The day before President Trump signed his cruel travel ban, I re-read my old Post colleague Rajiv Chandrasekaran's recount of the American fates of Iraqis who had helped Post reporters at enormous risk to their own lives, which (spoiler alert) ends with one of his translators becoming an American citizen.
A day later, I realized how badly I wanted to see a naturalization ceremony myself and then learned that there's no Web calendar you can consult for your next opportunity to cheer new Americans. So I had to wait.
Two months later, Arlington County's Twitter account announced one would happen at the Central Library. Of course I'd clear my schedule for that.
The event started with some introductory remarks, a presentation of the flag by a police color guard, and Washington-Lee High School student Mayari Loza belting out and signing the national anthem. FYI, Nationals Park.
Joyce Adams, supervisory immigration services officer with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, led a roll call of the countries represented by the day's citizenship candidates–from Afghanistan to Vietnam. People clapped and cheered, the candidates waved their miniature American flags, and I wondered inwardly what was left of the homes of the immigrants from Iraq and Syria.
"Each has demonstrated his or her knowledge and understanding of the histories and the principles and the form of government of the United States," Adams noted. How many native-born citizens could claim as much?
It also commits new citizens to perform a few tasks I have never been asked to put on my to-do list, like "perform work of national importance under civilian direction." I'm good for it, America… but can it not be this weekend?
USCIS district director Sarah Taylor announced, "Congratulations, you are America's newest citizens!", and another round of cheers and flag-waving broke out. It got a little dusty in the room at that point.
Then all 57 new citizens walked across the stage to get their certificates of naturalization–a college-diploma sized document including a picture of the new citizen. This part could have been a college graduation, except that while some of my new fellow citizens were dressed in suits, others were attired as if they had ducked out of work. And they had waited longer. And, yes, the pronunciations of many people's names got clobbered in the readout.
The first person to get a certificate, a man wearing his military uniform, paused a moment to give that document a kiss. Everybody posed with theirs for a quick picture. The last one put her hands in the air and said "I'm so excited!" We all were. I still am.
This entry was posted in History, Local news, Politics and policy and tagged Arlington, citizenship, immigrants, immigration, naturalization by robpegoraro. Bookmark the permalink.