They came from across the state, but before that, they came from every corner of the world.
On Friday morning, 48 people from 19 countries raised their right hands in an upper-floor courtroom in the Richard Sheppard Arnold United States Courthouse on Little Rock's West Capitol Avenue, and with an oath of allegiance administered by Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr., became citizens of the United States.
The mood in the packed, 160-seat courtroom was celebratory, with children laughing and playing before the start of the ceremony. Brenda Sanabria, an officer with the office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, provided information on obtaining a passport, how to replace a lost naturalization certificate and also helped those waiting to take the oath to find their seats.
Calling out a name, a woman raised her hand from the back of the courtroom.
"Where are you?" she called to the woman.
"Number 26," the woman replied, referring to her seat assignment.
"Come up here and sit," Sanabria called to her, smiling broadly and waving her forward. "We need to naturalize you."
Courtroom Deputy Cory Wilkins gave an overview of what was to take place.
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"This is an official court proceeding and one of the few where everyone leaves happy," Wilkins said.
Then, gesturing to a microphone set up in front of the courtroom, he instructed everyone to walk up to the microphone after receiving a naturalization certificate, then state a name and country of origin.
"This is your introduction as a new citizen," he said, "so have fun with it."
Jenny Nguyen, originally from Vietnam and a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2003, was there with her mother, Tammy Tran, who took the oath of citizenship Friday. Nguyen said Tran has lived in the U.S. for 22 years and has wanted to become a citizen "forever" but for years had lacked the confidence to try.
"She was afraid she wasn't competent enough to pass the test," Nguyen said. "But I said, 'no, you have to.' And she did it.
"You never know until you try," she added.
After taking the oath, Tran, smiling, walked up to the microphone and in halting English introduced herself for the first time as an American citizen.
Later, a man dressed in a business suit received his certificate, and then walked to the microphone to introduce himself.
"My name is John B. Barrios," the man said. "I was from Guatemala, but today I am a proud American citizen."
Afterward, Barrios said he has lived in the United States since 1995, and he had a long-standing desire to become a citizen.
"It was one of my accomplishments I wanted in life once I had the opportunity to take the next step," he said, proudly clutching his naturalization certificate and a small American flag in one hand.
Marshall, after the conclusion of the ceremony, spent nearly an hour in the courtroom talking to the new citizens and posing for photos with them, their family members and friends. He described his role in the proceedings as a privilege.
"This is one of the best days in court," he said. "This is when we welcome new citizens to the country."
This year, naturalization ceremonies were held in the U.S. District Court in Little Rock in March and April, as well as on Friday. Another ceremony is scheduled for September, and another in November in the U.S. District Court in Helena-West Helena, according to information from the office of Citizenship and Immigration Services, which said that about 50 people are sworn in at each ceremony.
According to the New York City-based Center for Migration Studies, 26,831 eligible-to-naturalize residents were living in Arkansas in 2017. Almost 36% of those, 9,624, came from Mexico; 3,208, or 12%, came from El Salvador; 1,417, or 5.3%, came from China; and 1,119, or 4.2%, came from India.
Of the total number of those eligible for naturalization in Arkansas, 14,276 have been in the United States for more than 20 years, and 19,757, or 73.6%, speak English well or very well, or only speak English, according to data from the Center for Migration Studies.
Nationally, according to the center, more than eight million immigrants were eligible for naturalization in 2017. Almost four million of those immigrants had lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years.
The center, established in 1964, is a nonprofit think tank that says it is devoted to the study of international migration.
The path to citizenship can be arduous and complicated, said Casey Bryant, an immigration attorney who serves as the legal director of Arkansas United, an immigrant advocacy organization based in Springdale. The steps that must be taken, she said, can take a long time and can be difficult to navigate.
"Considering all the stuff that a person has to take to get to the point where they are eligible for citizenship, it can be a decades-long process," Bryant said. "To become a citizen, you must first become a legal permanent resident, and to become a legal permanent resident, you first have to have some kind of eligibility to do so, which means you have to come in on a visa or some other lawful way."
To obtain legal permanent residency, she said, can take as little as one year "or as long as 30 years."
After meeting eligibility requirements, applicants must be interviewed, pass an English test and a 10-question civics test, answer questions about their "moral character," pass a biometric background screening and pay fees that total $725, according to Citizenship and Immigration Services fee schedules.
"As far as naturalization goes," Bryant said, "it does give people a higher sense of security. It gives them a say in their communities, in their government, and until then, as long as they have been here, they've been voiceless. They haven't had the right to vote, they haven't had the right to push the country to be a country that serves them and serves the people in their community, so this is the time when they are finally integrated into the social fabric of the country."
State Desk on 07/27/2019