The holds apply to green card and U.S. citizenship requests by people from 19 countries deemed “high risk” by the Trump administration following the shooting of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital. The list includes Haiti, Iran, the Congo and Somalia, among other countries.
In recent weeks, local immigrants who went through the process to become U.S. citizens reportedly had their naturalization ceremony canceled after they showed up at the courthouse because of the countries they were from.
U.S. District Judge Walter Rice, who swore the group in at Dayton’s federal court building, told dozens of families in the courtroom on Thursday that they may encounter other Americans who don’t want immigrants coming to the U.S.
“So whenever you hear people say, ‘We don’t want new Americans. We don’t want immigrants.’ Please realize that those persons are a very, very small minority,” Rice said. “Unfortunately, often with the loudest voices, but a minority still.”
These 46 new citizens have stories that began in 25 different countries.
For the Rev. Yoon Sun Shin, South Korea was her birthplace. But Dayton has been home for 15 years in total. Thursday’s ceremony simply made it official.
“I’m just so excited,” she said. “I love Dayton, I love it here.”
Jackeline Rosas, a Dayton resident for a decade, came to the U.S. from Mexico because of her husband’s employment. She was surrounded by her loved ones for her swearing-in and said she was feeling both excited and nervous for this new stage of her life.
But she also felt a twinge of sorrow for immigrants who are ready to be naturalized but are being denied due to federal policy.
“I feel so sad for people who aren’t able to do this,” she said.
A Dayton Daily News reporter who attended Thursday’s ceremony asked federal officials there if immigrants were being turned away due to the Trump policy. A citizenship officer directed this news outlet to a spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
That office released the following statement to the Dayton Daily News when asked if Dayton residents were having their naturalizations canceled.
“USCIS 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,” a spokesperson said. “The pause will allow for a comprehensive examination of all pending benefit requests for aliens from the designated high-risk countries. The safety of the American people always comes first.”
Rice said he takes issue with immigrants being blamed for national issues, particularly pointing to the Islamic community.
“We welcome you here as we welcome all new Americans,” Rice said. “Ours is not a perfect country, ladies and gentlemen, but working together, you and I and all of us can make it the best, the most humane, and the most just country in the history of the world.”
Rice said he sees the impact of immigrants in Dayton any time he drives around its northern and eastern neighborhoods. What was once an area in need of development is now an area reborn, he said.
And immigration is deeply personal to the federal judge. Rice himself is the grandchild of an immigrant who had to say goodbye to his Russian parents and siblings in order to escape persecution. A story passed down in Rice’s family is that his grandfather left home on the back of a wagon, disguised in women’s clothing. Rice’s grandfather became a U.S. citizen in 1912.
“Whenever I hear a person say that our country has problems that cannot be solved, I will think of each of you, those who have preceded you by becoming our fellow Americans, and I will say that the spirit of our country has been refreshed by your having become citizens and that the best of times for our country are yet ahead of us,” Rice said.
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