Official website of the Department of Homeland Security
Over six decades, more than 12 million immigrants came through Ellis Island. Today, 298 people sat in the same place under the American flag and become new U.S. citizens during a naturalization ceremony in the Great Hall. We welcome and celebrate our newest fellow Americans in honor of Citizenship Day and Constitution Week.
DHS and USCIS celebrated the National Park Service Centennial with naturalization ceremonies across the country. These new U.S. citizens took the Oath of Allegiance at the Grand Canyon. Join them, and find your park! Official photo by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
On Friday, May 27, we welcomed 61 new U.S. citizens from 39 countries during a special naturalization ceremony on Ellis Island.
On the 224th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, President Barack Obama, Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director León Rodríguez participated in a special naturalization ceremony at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Thirty-one people from 25 countries were sworn in as new U.S. citizens. Official DHS photo by Jetta Disco, Dec. 15, 2015.
If you ask Vanessa Hansen why she joined the Air Force, she'd tell you she felt a need to give back to the country that provided her family with asylum from Nicaragua. She entered the United States when she was 16 years old after her father was arrested by Nicaraguan police. After naturalizing in an asylum ceremony, Hansen decided to give back to her adopted country by entering the U.S. Air Force, where she served for almost six years. She continues to serve her country in the Air Force Reserves.
Some of our nation’s newest and youngest (and costumed) U.S. citizens recite the Pledge of Allegiance at a special Halloween-themed children’s citizenship ceremony at the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Forty-six children from 28 countries for citizenship were recognized. USCIS holds citizenship ceremonies around the country to welcome and celebrate our newest Americans.
USCIS welcomed 100 new citizens from almost three dozen countries on Oct. 18 during a special naturalization ceremony at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City during the fourth annual People en Español Festival. During the ceremony, former New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera and Thalia, the singer, songwriter, actress, author, entrepreneur and fashion designer, were recognized as Outstanding Americans by Choice.
Secretary Johnson presents a Certificate of Citizenship to a new U.S. citizen who took the Oath of Allegiance this week at a special naturalization ceremony in San Francisco, California. As we conclude Constitution Week, we honor the thousands of new Americans who have committed to the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship.
If you are eligible to naturalize, you should seriously consider applying for citizenship. USCIS Director León Rodríguez just took that message to Dallas, where he saw firsthand last week how organizations are helping to spread the word among permanent residents.
