U.S. GOVERNMENT | A resilient balance of institutions
22 December 2008
Immigrants from 23 Nations Become Citizens at National Archives
Backdrop of America’s founding documents lends rich context to ceremony
Washington — Andre Bogoslowsky arrived in the United States in 1988 as a political refugee from the Soviet Union. Nabil Awad came here from Mauritania in 1994, intent on getting an education, as was Saba Tasneem, who arrived from India in 1998.
Today, Bogoslowsky, Awad and Tasneem are among the United States’ newest citizens.
Along with 28 other applicants, they were sworn in at a special relocated court session held December 16 in the rotunda at the National Archives building in Washington amid the symbols of the nation’s founding and freedoms. Such a ceremony has been held at the archives annually in recent years in conjunction with the December 15 observance of Bill of Rights Day.
Former residents of 23 nations around the world — Romania and Bulgaria, El Salvador and Venezuela, Ethiopia and India, Sudan and Peru, Israel and Mauritania and Bangladesh and a dozen more — filed into the hall as a military band played “God Bless America.”
Many of the men displayed American flags in the breast pockets of their suit jackets, and one woman proudly sported her flag sticking out of her thick, curly hair.
Friends and family snapped photos as a color guard of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines marched in and stood at attention for the playing of the national anthem.
Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, presiding at the ceremony, told the group it was “a special occasion for our court as well as all of you.”
As the citizens-to-be stood with right hands raised, images of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and other U.S. Founding Fathers gazed down at them from murals representing the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
Original copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights rested in their display cases behind Lamberth as the group repeated the words of the citizenship oath section by section. Their voices echoed in the cavernous hall, pledging to “renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty,” to “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” to “perform work of national importance” when required by law.
Then they joined their fellow citizens in the audience in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and talked afterward about their pride in their new status. (See “New Citizens Express Gratitude to and Pride in the United States.”)
FOUNDATIONS OF FREEDOM
The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights laid the foundation for rights the American people have held for more than two centuries. They are permanently housed in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom at the National Archives.
The Declaration of Independence, the National Archives Web site states, “announced to the world on July 4, 1776, that 13 British colonies in North America were leaving Great Britain to form a separate nation.” In justifying the American Revolution, it “asserted a universal truth about human rights.”
The Constitution, drafted in 1787 after the American war for independence, “codified the spirit of the revolution into an ingenious practical scheme of government to promote the welfare of its citizens.” The Bill of Rights, added to that charter in 1791 as its first 10 Amendments, “explicitly protected freedom of speech, of the press, of religion, and of assembly, among many other rights.”
Lamberth, in his remarks to the new citizens, stressed the role of the judiciary, as a separate branch of government, “to assure that everyone’s rights are protected.” He cited the diversity of America, noting that, except for American Indians, American citizens or their ancestors “all came from somewhere.”
U.S. Archivist Allen Weinstein recalled his own parents, who arrived from Russia early in the 20th century. “The day they became citizens remained special for them for the rest of their lives — and it remains special for me even now,” he said. “No country in the world allows so many rights, and it’s wonderful to have you here.”
The number of new citizens jumped sharply to a record 1,051,640 in the fiscal year that ended September 30, U.S. government statistics show.
Participants in the ceremony were chosen randomly from among Washington-area applicants, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
