A ceremony to grant US citizenship celebrated immigration even as the debate around it swirls

Independent

27-01-2025

Carlos Wriedt came to the U.S. from Mexico in his 40s with his wife to pursue their dream of starting a business and to build a better life for their daughter, then 10 months old.
He and his wife became U.S. citizens Monday, taking their oaths in a ceremony at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka, along with 28 others, as their families watched, waved small flags and recorded the event on their cellphones. Wriedt, his wife and his daughter have lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years, and he and his wife now have a business in Wichita offering translation services to courts, medical providers and others.
Wriedt had a green card proving he is a legal permanent resident, and ahead of last year's election — in which President Donald Trump made illegal immigration a key issue — he wasn't worried that he wouldn't be able to renew. But he and his wife applied for citizenship anyway. Their daughter became a citizen in September.
After he and the other immigrants sang the concluding 'home of the brave' in the National Anthem, took the oath renouncing foreign princes and potentates and pledged allegiance to the American flag, Wriedt said he still had goosebumps but that he also felt relief.
'Now, nobody can take that away from us unless we misbehave — but of course we won't,' he said.
The U.S. naturalized more than 818,000 new citizens from October 2023 through September 2024, an average of about 68,000 a month, according to the federal government. In Topeka, the 30 new citizens came from 18 different nations, and the ceremony gave speakers a chance to stress their own immigrant roots, with Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly noting that her family emigrated from Ireland.
But it also occurred against the backdrop of Trump's promise of mass deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, his suspension of refugee resettlements and his effort to end the constitutional promise of birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to immigrant parents.
'I'm disappointed at the climate and the rhetoric right now,' said Kansas state Rep. Tobias Schlingensiepen, a Topeka Democrat and United Church of Christ minister. 'It promotes people with short fuses doing things they shouldn't do.'
Yet Schlingensiepen was heartened by the ceremony and it brought back memories. This year will mark the 50th anniversary of his own naturalization as a 13-year-old immigrant from Germany. He has attended other ceremonies, and he stopped to watch Monday's after coming across it during a break in legislative meetings.
The officials speaking at the ceremony congratulated the new citizens who had to fill out applications, undergo interviews, take a citizenship test and attest to their good character before they could be naturalized. The speakers also celebrated the diversity of the American population and described their adopted nation as a place of equity and inclusion.
'The dreams of immigrants have built in America and continue to inject new energy, new vitality and new strength into our country," Kelly said.
Kansas Court of Appeals Judge Rachel Pickering noted that her mother's parents came to the U.S. from Mexico about a century ago. She said later that they were fleeing a civil war and took a train to Chicago to find work before settling in Detroit.
She told the new citizens, 'You are keeping the American dream alive."
As Jerry Ugbo took the citizenship oath, his wife, Hannah, watched with their two children, 18-month-old Gideon and 6-month-old Nora. Gideon laughed with delight as his mother waved a small American flag then handed it to him. The flag ended up attached to the side of Nora's carriage.
Jerry Ugbo came to Idaho from Nigeria in 2015 to study human biology. He and his family now live in Manhattan, Kansas, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Topeka. He is finishing up schooling to become a physician's assistant and Hannah does major event planning.
The couple married in 2018, and Jerry Ugbo hadn't thought much about becoming a U.S. citizen as he concentrated on his career. He described the U.S. as a place of 'endless opportunity" after making friends and immersing himself in American culture.
With the debate over immigration swirling, Hannah Ugbo said she thinks it's important for people to come to the U.S. legally but that the legal process has hurdles. It costs at least hundreds of dollars, and often immigrants hire lawyers to help them, especially if they struggle with English. Jerry and Hannah Ugbo, unable to afford a lawyer, had to sweat the details themselves.
With his oath taken, Jerry Ugbo and his family planned to celebrate, though the first order of business was a meal and, Hannah Ugbo said, to 'let the kids play.'