Hundreds of students packed the bleachers at the gym at Archbishop Alter High School in Kettering. But instead of watching a game on the court, there were rows of chairs filled with people anxiously waiting for the ceremony to begin.
Some in the crowd have miniature American flags in hand, while gripping their new citizen packets in the other. A few get teary eyed as they repeat the Oath of Allegiance.
“Congratulations, you are all United States citizens,” U.S. District Judge Michael Newman said as the gym erupted in applause.
It’s been a volatile year of immigration policy in the U.S. as foreign nationals face heightened scrutiny to stay here. But citizen naturalization ceremonies are still happening, like the one the U.S. District Court in Dayton held at the Kettering school earlier this month.
The group at the February ceremony included 27 people from 21 different countries.
One of those new citizens was Marie Antonette Terte Parker, 46, from the Philippines.
“I've been in the United States seven years and nine months, I believe. I came here April 2018,” Terte Parker said.
She moved here after some time in South Korea to marry her husband, a U.S. citizen. She's been living and working in Dayton with a green card.
“I decided to apply for naturalization, because of course I want to vote and I want to travel,” Terte Parker said.
Final step in a lengthy process
She said she was able to get through the process within six months, but for others it can take years. Gaining citizenship can be a long road and in the last year, the Trump administration made it even longer.
The Homeland Security department rolled out a citizenship test with more questions that requires twice as many correct answers. Beginning last year, NPR reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement started to occasionally arrest people in federal or immigration courtrooms. Plus, the number of countries where migrants are barred from obtaining U.S. immigrant visas has shot up to more than 90 since Trump took office last January.
“I am scared about–you know what's going on right now. I don't want to get deported,” Terte Parker said.
U.S. District Judge Newman, who recited the pledge the new citizens made at the February ceremony, said not everyone is guaranteed that they’ll make it through the citizenship process.
“And I think that many of the folks that I talked to today are so happy and relieved, quite frankly, but happy that they are now part of our culture,” he said.
'A pay-it-forward moment'
The U.S. District Court in Dayton has been holding naturalization ceremonies in community spaces like schools for years. The shift in immigration policy isn’t putting a stop to that effort.
“We're trying to reach out to the community to make the community realize that we're part of this process together,” Newman said. “And we think this is part of our civic duty to meet with young people and to do the ceremony here today.”
“The privilege of being an American is often taken for granted. It's a place where you can speak freely, dream boldly, and work toward something greater. It's the place that I know I could sleep knowing that I'm protected, and I hope you feel that safety too.”
It’s the third year in a row that the court has held a ceremony at this school.
“It's a really personal, almost a pay-it-forward moment for me,” said Lourdes Lambert, president and CEO of Archbishop Alter High School.
Lambert’s parents immigrated from Cuba during the revolution there. She said watching her parents pursuing citizenship was a humbling experience.
“It's a rigorous process. I remember being 10, 11 years old, quizzing my parents. It's a hard test. I don't know that those of us that were born here could pass that test,” Lambert said.
Before the start of the ceremony, Lambert invited Alter High School senior Miguel Delgado to speak about his family’s experience with naturalization after immigrating from the Philippines.
“The privilege of being an American is often taken for granted. It's a place where you can speak freely, dream boldly, and work toward something greater. It's the place that I know I could sleep knowing that I'm protected, and I hope you feel that safety too,” Delgado said to the crowd.
Terte Parker says now that she’s a citizen, she’s excited to be able to leave the country and visit her family in the Philippines, and more generally, live without fear in America.
“For the seven years that I was here in the United States, I was a lawful citizen. And now that I am a U.S. citizen, yeah, it's been a great honor,” Terte Parker said, smiling.
She said she’s not just grateful to be a naturalized citizen, she’s grateful to the Dayton community that accepted her before she was.
