A friend of mine got his United States citizenship yesterday. A Canadian who has been in this country for close to 40 years, it took him more than two years and over $20,000 to complete the process. Both the time and the expense involved are the result of how complicated and difficult the process has become: more forms to fill out, more technology involved (biometric scans), more minutia that requires legal assistance.
My image of the citizenship ceremony has been shaped by the media, who love to show us tableaus of this momentous occasion: a room full of people of many different nationalities, dressed in vibrant native garb, taking the oath together, waving little American flags the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) provides, while family members and friends line the perimeters, where they clap and cheer wildly when the magistrate pronounces them citizens.
The pandemic has changed that. Only two or three people are scheduled at a time, everyone wearing masks, sitting far apart in little plastic chairs that have to be sanitized after each ceremony, while friends and relatives are required to stay outside the building in the parking lot. The media doesn’t cover a story like that.
Two pieces of my friend’s story struck me as ones I want to share here. First, everyone applying for citizenship has to pass an oral test. The test is based on 100 civics questions. These cover everything from how our government functions (“What is one power of the federal government?”), to our rights and responsibilities as citizens (“What is one promise you make when you become a United States citizen?”), to American history (“Name one of the writers of the Federalist papers”). When the test is administered, the USCIS official begins asking these 100 questions at random. The applicant has to be able to answer any 6 in a row to pass the test.
I’m going to venture a guess that many of us do not know the answers to many of these questions. Here is a link to the test and the answers: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/questions-and-answers/100q.pdf
The second thing that struck me is the oath itself. This is what applicants say aloud before a magistrate during the citizenship ceremony:
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”
The foundation of this oath is fidelity to our country. Fidelity to our country, in turn, rests on having a working knowledge of our Constitution and on having the mindset and the discipline required to be law-abiding rather than law-flaunting. In these times, it seems as if a large number of people, including a large number of politicians, are either ignorant of or defiant of the Constitution, especially the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
When people push for civics courses to be taught in schools, this is the reason. Immigrants seeking to become naturalized citizens have more understanding of the U.S. Constitution as a whole, and those words in particular, than the average citizen. They are more familiar with U.S. history and government, and follow our laws more carefully, than many people we see on the news: those who arrive at a peaceful protest armed with assault weapons, for example, or those who target and attack people of Muslim or Jewish faiths.
Bearing witness for someone who has become a citizen as an immigrant gave me enormous respect for what we – collectively, through the years since our founding – want citizenship to mean. I hope one day that being a citizen of this country by birthright will be as deeply meaningful to each of us as it is to each immigrant who has been through the arduous process of becoming a naturalized citizen.
