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This is an adapted excerpt from the Dec. 13 episode of “Velshi.”
The journey to becoming a naturalized American citizen is different for everyone. For me, the path was long, circuitous and not especially intentional.
It was 18 years, nine months and 17 days from the day I entered the United States until the day I was sworn in as a citizen — and I did it in three steps.
The first step, as it is for most naturalized citizens, was to arrive in the United States. My arrival was only unique in its timing, which by total coincidence, was on Sept. 13, 2001.
For many people in the immigration system, that ceremony — the oath of citizenship — is the final step to starting a brand-new life as an American citizen.
On that day, I made my way across the Canada-U.S. border on my 650cc Honda motorcycle — because, in the days after the 9/11 attacks, no planes were flying and no cars were available to rent. I crossed the George Washington Bridge into New York City, with smoke still rising from lower Manhattan in the distance, into a city that was reeling. A city that would become my home.
The second step toward my citizenship was actually applying and getting approved, which I did in 2015.
I had never seriously thought about citizenship until three years prior to that. A colleague at the time, another Canadian, explained to me that being an American citizen “is not something to be taken lightly. You live in this country, and you benefit from its services and infrastructure. And if you’re planning to stay here, that comes with rights and responsibilities.”
So I decided to take up those rights and responsibilities and start the process of becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen.
The third step, after quite a bit of vetting and tests, was my own naturalization ceremony — the day that all of those rights and responsibilities truly came to the forefront of my mind.
I went through the metal detectors and into a beautiful, ornate court chamber in lower Manhattan, where my oath of citizenship was to be administered. I saw other people, all from different nations and cultures, all there for the same reason.
I watched as they filtered in and took their seats. With nothing else to do, because you can’t take your phones into a courthouse, I started to think about their stories.
Maybe the citizenship certificate they were about to get was their golden ticket. Maybe that man I was looking at was a refugee from a war-torn homeland he would never see again. Maybe that woman across the courtroom spent years slogging through the immigration bureaucracy to finally be with the spouse she loved.
Seeing how special this moment was for all these other people made me realize how special it was for me.
Once I swore my oath of citizenship, other than being able to vote and being eligible for jury duty, my day-to-day life was not greatly transformed.
But for many people in the immigration system, that ceremony — the oath of citizenship — is the final step to starting a brand-new life as an American citizen. That ceremony is not just a celebration; it is a legal requirement for citizenship.
But now, some immigrants who have worked for months and years to be approved for citizenship are being turned away at their naturalization ceremonies. According to Time:
Lawyers for legal aid groups and individuals seeking citizenship have reported across the country that their naturalization interviews and oath ceremonies have been cancelled, some at the last moment as they waited in line.
These cancellations, at the last stage of a bureaucratic journey that can last for years, have caused chaos and confusion for thousands of immigrants who did everything by the book.
This wave of cancellations stems from Donald Trump’s new restrictions on legal immigration in response to an Afghan refugee being charged with the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.
In the days after that shooting, which left one of those Guard members dead, the president imposed new travel and visa restrictions on immigrants hailing from 19 specific countries.
According to an immigration advocate who spoke with Time, one woman showed up to her citizenship ceremony and was asked what her country of origin was. When she told them Haiti, she was pulled out of the line and told that her ceremony had been canceled.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told Time it has “paused all adjudications for aliens from high-risk countries while USCIS works to ensure that all aliens from these countries are vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”
Let me emphasize this: Those who have made it to the final step of a citizenship ceremony have already been approved for citizenship. They have been vetted for months — if not years.
In general, they would have already been lawful permanent residents of the U.S. for three to five years. They have met the continuous residency and physical presence requirements. They’ve passed the English and U.S. civics tests, which the Trump administration has made harder.
This year, the administration reinstated a more difficult civics exam and ramped up social media vetting for those seeking to become naturalized citizens.
And as I said, these citizenship ceremonies, while meant to be a final formality, are mandatory for citizenship.
It’s not like if you miss your graduation ceremony and they’ll send you your diploma in the mail. You must attend a ceremony in order to take an oath of citizenship, and you must take the oath in order to receive a certificate of naturalization.
Right on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, it reads: “You are not a U.S. citizen until you take the Oath of Allegiance at a naturalization ceremony. You will receive your Certificate of Naturalization after taking the Oath of Allegiance.”
That certificate is supposed to prevent deportation.
This is simply cruel. There is no other way to describe it. These immigrants have done everything right. They did everything by the book; their long-held and hard-fought dream of becoming an American citizen was just within reach, and then it was gone.
The oath-taking ceremony is supposed to be the end of one journey and the start of another. Marked with emotional cheers, small American flags waved by proud family members, the flashing lights of cameras preserving lifelong memories, maybe a sheet cake with red, white and blue frosting — and a new sense of responsibility to the United States of America.
Instead, the Trump administration has stained this milestone with fear and uncertainty. Now, those would-be U.S. citizens are scared that their own naturalization ceremony is just another trap, leaving many stuck in limbo.
Trump claims his immigration crackdown is about getting the worst of the worst: the criminals, the murderers, the rapists and the drug dealers.
But that’s not what this is. They’re targeting and punishing people who have followed all the rules and pathways to citizenship.
Ali Velshi is the host of “Velshi,” which airs Saturdays and Sundays on MSNBC. He has been awarded the National Headliner Award for Business & Consumer Reporting for “How the Wheels Came Off,” a special on the near collapse of the American auto industry. His work on disabled workers and Chicago’s red-light camera scandal in 2016 earned him two News and Documentary Emmy Award nominations, adding to a nomination in 2010 for his terrorism coverage.
