Overjoyed new US citizens breathed a huge sigh of relief and celebrated Wednesday, largely — if not uniformly — critical of the Trump administration’s orders for a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigrants.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services said it welcomed more than 25,000 new citizens in recognition of this year’s President’s Day in the week beginning February 14 at more than 162 ceremonies around the country.
Of seven new citizens who spoke to AFP at a ceremony in Jersey City, one of the most diverse towns in the United States, five expressed reservations about a blanket policy that now threatens millions with deportation.
“It’s really scary,” said Stephany Perez, 25, an employment specialist who migrated from Colombia more than 20 years ago with her family.
She was one of 26 people from 18 different countries, more than half of them in Central and South America, who become citizens in Jersey City a day after the crackdown was announced.
Although Perez arrived in the United States as a child with proper documentation, she says she feels safe only now. She still worries for her parents, despite the fact that they are permanent residents.
“Honestly, becoming a citizen is kind of like a sense of relief,” she said. “I’m personally afraid for where we’re going, but I hope God helps us because I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
The number of legal permanent residents applying for US citizenship in the nine months starting October 2015 was at its highest in four years, the Pew Research Center found in a report last September.
Wednesday’s ceremony opened with the national anthem and a video montage of photographs showing new immigrants through the ages, and included keynote remarks from a New Jersey state congressman, himself a former refugee from Cuba.
At the end, staff distributed US flags as the vocalist sang “America The Beautiful” before each new citizen went up to receive a certificate.
Afterward, they posed for photographs and smiled for joy, one woman from Peru almost tearful for being able to celebrate with her children in a restaurant — 10 years after moving to be with her now ex-husband.
Foreign-born people account for 40.3 percent of Jersey City’s population and 52.6 percent of people aged five or above speak a language other than English at home, according to recent census information.
Many of those who spoke to AFP said they were partly motivated by a desire to vote in last year’s hugely divisive election between Donald Trump, the Republican notoriously tough on immigration, and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
“It’s the greatest day of my life,” said Carl Auguste, 47, who came as a baby with his family from Haiti.
Despite having lived here legally since the 1970s, he also confessed to feeling uncertainty, even fear, while going through the naturalization process.
“What made this country great is the fact that this was a place you could come and you could be better, you could improve yourself, so I don’t think that those doors should be closed,” he said.
But accountant Cathy Wang, 49, who was born in China and lived in Thailand before moving to the United States, was more circumspect.
Having spent more than $10,000 and waiting 14 years for a green card — then five more years before applying for citizenship — she had less sympathy for anyone trying to cut corners.
“I really support to do it the legal way,” she said. “I feel a little bit unfair that people just like come in and get everything overnight and I have to spend 14 years to get a green card and 19 years to become a citizen.”
If many worried about the direction the United States is taking, some reserved criticism for Trump himself. Although New Jersey is generally a Democratic state, Governor Chris Christie is a twice-elected Republican who is close to Trump.
“I’m more concerned about Americans who bought into the ideas,” Auguste said of Trump’s supporters. “As far as Mr Trump, he’s actually doing what he said he was going to do.”
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