Journey to Citizenship
Explore the stories of the people who chose America
In September, 45,000 people earned their citizenship at more than 260 ceremonies throughout U.S. Constitution Week, a weeklong celebration signed into law by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956.
USCIS reports that they welcome around 700,000 new citizens to the US every year. In 2017, the majority of new citizens came from Mexico, The Philippines and The People's Republic of China, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Nearly half of the new citizens are between the ages of 25 and 44. On average, new citizens in 2017 had spent eight years living in lawful residency in the U.S.
Jennifer Vázquez Macías, an attorney at the USC Gould Immigration Clinic, said that every person seeking to be naturalized should first meet with an immigration attorney to determine if they're eligible for citizenship.
"Under the Trump administration, it becomes a little precarious when you want to apply for naturalization if you've had issues before," Macías said. Those "issues" could be a criminal record or problems with the way a person may have applied for lawful residence.
Macías also said the Trump administration has instituted a "denaturalization unit" within USCIS, dubbed Operation Janus, which is tasked with finding people who naturalized illegally. Janus is finding people through the fingerprint database who allegedly gave a false identity when becoming naturalized.
The length of time between applying for citizenship and becoming a citizen has also increased, according to Macías. She said there seems to be a backlog within USCIS as it can take two to three times as long for applications to be processed. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit against USCIS for this delay.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services welcomed around 5,000 new citizens representing 117 countries in two ceremonies at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Sept. 18. Many of the new citizens were overwhelmed with emotion at finally becoming a U.S. citizen, with most saying they finally felt "free."
Scroll down to discover some of their stories.
“Everyone should be like accepted – wherever we go, where ever we are. Eventually, times will change and for the better and we’ll get to this point where everyone will be accepted for who they are and what they are doing so. ”
“It has been 20 years since I have been living in America but I always thought, ‘what’s the point of taking citizenship?' My heart finally wanted to become a citizen so I got it today."
“I said, one day I’m going to do it and I did it.”
“You know she’s my daughter, I didn’t see her for 16 years. I thought we’re not gonna see each other, and now we’re together.”
“In the ceremony, you get to really enjoy and feel, and have the feeling of the whole process you’ve been through, and then to finally have the citizenship, it’s an amazing feeling.”
“My emotions are everywhere right now – I’m not sure how to feel – but I’m very excited and very honored to become a citizen.”
“I feel a lot more free! I can leave the country and travel. I can vote. I can express my opinion in a lot of political matters.”
“You can take advantage of the benefits [the military] gives you, even if you’re not a citizen. There’s a lot of benefits;they paid for my schooling [and] I’m actually taking classes right now [and] working my way to my bachelor’s degree.”
”It meant the culmination of the effort of many years, of trying to accomplish what we needed to, to be able to be citizens.”
“We are all immigrants coming from different countries and when you’re actually there and see all the people that are doing the same thing. It definitely gets you.”