Posted on 05/06/2006 6:04:36 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Amid a growing furor over illegal immigration, 25 people who came to Alabama legally officially became Americans on Friday.
Some fled war. Others sought protection from oppression. A few were motivated by love -- of the American dream or an American. Some spoke broken English with thick accents, while others were as fluent as native-born Americans.
"I love it. I love everything," Parzhin Abdullah Abdulrahman said of her new country after she and other people hailing from 18 nations swore allegiance to the United States during a ceremony in Mobile's federal courthouse.
Abdulrahman came to the United States nine years ago with her husband and son from Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Mustaffa Abdulrahman, who works as an engineer in Saraland and hopes to join his wife in citizenship, opened his briefcase and removed the document granting his family political asylum. The Abdulrahmans are Kurds, an ethnic minority from northern Iraq oppressed by the old regime.
The Abdulrahmans' home country, of course, has dominated international news in America the past few years. But they were reluctant to speak about the ongoing war there.
Parzhin Abdulrahman spoke generally about her love for America. "I don't have any problem with my (new) government," she said.
Those taking the oath Friday first had to complete years paying fees, filing paperwork and taking tests. Applicants had to travel to Atlanta to take their citizenship test, which consisted of questions about the nation's history and government. They also had to demonstrate a minimal command of English.
Naturalization ceremonies are held twice a year in Mobile, on Law Day in May and again in December. Officials said this May's class of new citizens is slightly larger than normal.
In recent weeks, the attention of Congress and the public has focused on immigrants who come to America illegally. Politicians have debated what to do about the millions of undocumented workers from Mexico and other Central American countries living in the United States.
Several of immigrants interviewed Friday seemed hesitant to discuss the hot-button issue.
"I have no opinion on that," said Mariana Mimi Abu, who took her oath 13 years after fleeing war-torn Liberia. "I know the steps I had to go through. It took a long time."
Abu, who went to nursing school and now works at Mobile Infirmary, said she was a teenager when the YMCA helped her escape civil war in her native African nation. She landed in Houston and, eventually, got married and made her way to Mobile when her husband applied to the University of South Alabama.
Abu, 28, said her first application for citizenship ended in disappointment when immigration officials told her, after she had not heard anything for two years, that her case was closed because she did not respond to information they claimed to have sent her. Abu said she had to pay a second $390 fee.
"So, I had to start all over," she said.
Although she remains separated from her parents and the rest of her family, Abu said it was all worth it Friday.
"I love America, and I'm proud to be here," she said. "I like the food. I like the people. I like everything."
Franz Barraza, 31, said he first came to America as an exchange student in high school. He said he returned to attend college at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, where he fell in love with the woman who would become his wife.
That's when he knew for certain he wanted to stay and become an American, he said.
The Peru native said he transferred to the University of South Alabama. He now works as a camera operator at WALA-TV Channel 10 and lives with his wife and three children in Spanish Fort. He said he parents also have moved to the United States.
Barraza expressed mixed emotions about the Latinos who stream across the Mexican border every year without permission. They should immigrate legally, he said. But he added that he sympathizes with the folks who are merely looking for a better life.
"A lot of people are fleeing their countries because they don't have the opportunities you have here in this country," he said.
And Barraza said he knows from experience what an arduous ordeal it can be to immigrate and then get citizenship.
"It's a long process. There's a lot of paperwork, a lot of calls, a lot of time," he said.
The following people took the oath of citizenship Friday:
Hoai Tam Thi Nguyen (Vietnam); Zlatko Markulin (Germany); Jana Alarid (Czechoslovakia); Khatija Azeem (Pakistan); Kyung Ryen Ahn (Korea); Dung My Vy (Vietnam); Son Thanh Pham (Vietnam); Nannan Qiu (China); Seung Hyun Sung (South Korea); Marvin Ernesto Rodriguez Arias (Honduras); Marijan Wierszalowski (Australia); Parzhin Abdullah Abdulrahman (Iraq); Mladen Cvitanovic (Bosnia-Herzegovina); Natasa Cvitanovic (Bosnia-Herzegovina); Be Nho Thi Vo (Vietnam); Betsy Aminta Stallworth (Panama); Franz Barraza (Peru); Mariana Mimi Abu (Liberia); Thomas Le (Vietnam); Fawuz Al Amro (Jordan); Khaophone Chanthaleuangsy (Laos); Shohreh Rezaei (Iran); Phaik EE Anna Chuah Ott (Malaysia); Hernan Dominguez (Honduras).
"I love America, and I'm proud to be here," she said. "I like the food. I like the people. I like everything."
This is what we need more of.
Congratulations to all these new Rightful Americans. Welcome to the American Family.
Notable that not a single one was from Mexico. That's because it's much easier to just walk across the border than to go through the legal process.
well, I guess that's a start...
and they are unwelcome criminals because of it.
I know some Mexican immigrants that are excellent citizens.
I do too. I certainly didn't mean to imply otherwise. Mexicans are no more inherently evil than any other nationality but the ones crossing our border without going through the legal process are criminals by the very fact that they are here.
This is the way it should be.
Take all of the legal steps to citizenship!
Illegal Aliens, i.e., law breakers should not be rewarded with citizenship!
"This is what we need more of."
Very well-stated.
Yeah, here the sucker taxpayers foot the bill for anything an illegal might want. We even have translated almost everything into the native tongue of the 12 - 20 million who hopped the fence.
I tip my hat to these folks who went through hoops and hurdles, long lines, waiting and did it the right way. How great.
An unusal ping. It's about legal immigrants/new citizens.
Welcome new citizens. I wished all those illegals could do the same thing.
Ditto that. I did notice something, however. Only one from an English speaking country and only four from Europe. I hope this group is not a representative sample illustrating the origins of most immigrants. If it is, there seems to be a bias against both Europeans and those who speak English as a native tongue. I would hope that is not the case.
Welcome new immigrants.. My wife and I made a flash movie for you. Click my name there is a link there.
BTTT
Miss Abu just slipped in an opinion about something she claims to have no opinion about. She, like most legal immigrants, is not fond of line jumpers.
Legal immigrants, to a man, are not fond of line jumping.
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