'You are welcome here': 15,000 immigrants sworn in as U.S. citizens during Fourth of July holiday

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday July 05, 2017 · 8:54 AM PDT

2017/07/05 · 08:54

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 16: Immigrants recite the Pledge of Allegiance during a naturalization ceremony at Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island, June 16, 2017 in New York City. 50 citizenship candidates became U.S. citizens at the conclusion of the ceremony. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

In naturalization ceremonies spanning a former warship in California to the majestic New York Public Library, nearly 15,000 immigrants hailing from Albania to Zimbabwe were sworn in as United States citizens over this past Fourth of July holiday.

In a ceremony at the Virginia Historical Society, the chief justice of the Richmond court that ruled against Donald Trump’s second failed Muslim ban administered the Oath of Allegiance to 89 new Americans:

“America will need your industry to fuel her engines of prosperity. America will need your intellect to seed her fields of creativity. America will need your imagination to light her path to new discovery. Yes, America will need your voice to join in its unwavering cry for justice,” [Judge Roger] Gregory said. “From this day forward, my dear fellow citizens, this is your charge.”

"You all will weave your unique threads into the tapestry that is the United States of America," Senior U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker, who presided over a ceremony at the Benjamin Harrison Presidential site in Indiana, told the group of 96 new Americans. "You are welcome here. I repeat, you are welcome here. Remember that."

In California, Sen. Kamala Harris delivered remarks at a ceremony for a group of children and youth who derived citizenship when their immigrant parents naturalized. During the ceremony—the first of its kind onboard the USS Iowa—Sen. Harris discussed her own family’s immigration story:

“Looking at this group, I can’t help but think of a young woman roughly the age of many of you.

She was born in Chennai, in the south of India, where she had been a talented singer and a precocious student. And this young woman dreamed of becoming a scientist.

She wanted to study at one of the top universities in the world, the University of California, Berkeley. She was only 19, but her father let her travel halfway around the world, with the agreement that when she finished school she would return home to a traditional Indian marriage.

But at Berkeley, this young woman met a young man, also an immigrant. A top economics student from Jamaica. And so instead of an arranged marriage, she went against thousands of years of tradition and chose a love marriage.

That woman was my mother, Shyamala Gopalan.”

Like Judge Gregory in Virginia, Sen. Harris delivered “not-so-veiled” jabs at Trump:

“Whenever you feel that future is threatened, whenever those values of liberty and justice for all that drew us here seem under assault, you need to speak up and speak out,” Harris said at a ceremony on the battleship Iowa in the Port of Los Angeles on Monday, according to prepared remarks. “That’s the whole point of the freedoms we cherish.

During a ceremony on the lawn of George Washington’s historic Mount Vernon estate, Mahmoud Esmaeili, originally from Iran, said the huge number of Americans rushing to airports to protest Trump’s Muslim bans kept him optimistic.

Mahmoud and other new Americans expressed some of the exact kind of hopes that immigrants have brought to our shores for generations:

“I believe in this system, and that’s why I’m here. I believe that one person — even if it’s the president — can’t do everything he wants. The people are important,” he said, looking forward to the next election in 2020.

“People are going to know that they made a mistake and they will re-elect someone more suited to America,” he added

Even those who had no friends or family members who were taking part in the ceremonies were emotionally overwhelmed by the process:

Watching the festivities quietly from the back of the lawn, Johnna Scepansky, 50, wiped tears streaming down past her sunglasses. She did not know anybody taking the oath on Tuesday but brought her husband and 4-year-old twin daughters to see the ceremony.

“There is so much controversy about who should be here and who shouldn’t,” Ms. Scepansky said. “I think anyone who wants to be here should be here,” she said, adding that the most recent person in her family to migrate to the United States arrived some 200 years ago.

“I hate the vilification that’s coming out on people who just want to be here and have the best possible lives for their family,” she said.

And the truth is, when certain popular vote losers continue to demonize you and vilify you, there are few other purer expressions of patriotism than continuing to believe in and love this country, knowing you can help make it better. That’s hope, and that’s what immigrants bring.

Sen. Harris:

”You chose to become United States citizens. Now, I’m asking you to choose to embrace the responsibilities of citizenship. Get involved. Attend town halls or city council meeting. Run for office yourselves. Vote.”

”Remember that imperfect though we may be, our greatest strength has always been our ability and willingness to fix those imperfections and make our country a more just and equal place.”

'You are welcome here': 15,000 immigrants sworn in as U.S. citizens during Fourth of July holiday

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