As immigration crackdowns take place across the country, a courtroom in Connecticut welcomed a group of immigrants to the state.
WSHU’s Ebong Udoma spoke with CT Mirror’s Laura Tillman to discuss her article, written with Emilia Otte, “Citizenship ceremonies in CT imbued with mixed emotions amid ICE crackdown,” as part of the collaborative podcast Long Story Short. Read their story here.
WSHU: Hello, Laura. Last December, the Trump administration suspended naturalization ceremonies for people originating from 19 countries that they had placed on travel bans after the fatal shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC. Is that what prompted you and your colleague, Emilia Otte, to investigate citizenship ceremonies, and how did that play out in Connecticut?
LT: Yeah, Emilia had seen a story from a national outlet about some people finding out kind of abruptly that their ceremonies had been canceled, and she was just interested to see whether there was a way to do a story looking at whether this was happening in Connecticut and the degree to which it was happening. That was kind of challenging. We did talk with different immigration attorneys and groups to try to get a sense of how many of these cases there were, but it was a little bit tricky to get a full picture of that number. So we decided to also spend some time in the ceremonies themselves and just write a little bit more about what that experience is like, of going through the naturalization process at a time when immigration has become a very controversial and complex issue in American life.
WSHU: Well, I got naturalized. I got sworn in as an American citizen about 25 years ago; now it’s been quite a while, and it was an exhilarating experience. It was quite emotional. And my friends came, and they all had little American flags, and it was quite a memorable ceremony for me.
LT: A happy experience?
WSHU: Yes, it was, it was, you know, there were people from all over in the courtroom, and all of a sudden we were now all Americans. It was quite, quite a, quite an experience. So what was it like for the folks who are going through it now, when there's this shadow over who should be an American citizen?
LT: Yeah, it was especially the first ceremony that I went to, which was a little over a week after Renee Good had been killed in Minneapolis. Good was in her car and, you know, was kind of in the middle of this tense standoff happening, and then pulls her car forward and is shot through the window. I think that, in particular, the judge was emotional during that ceremony. People were emotional in the courtroom. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), also, who often comes and speaks at these ceremonies, there was just a real sense of it being kind of a heightened moment of importance, of what does it mean to be going through this? How do we all feel about what's going on outside of the walls of the courtroom? And so there were a lot of tears in that ceremony, you know, like people who seem to be expressing guilt that they were able to have access to this ability to become citizens while other people can't.
And then other ceremonies that I went to, you know, there were happy feelings and excitement. There were a lot of children, there were a lot of elderly people, and there was just kind of this sense that the stories and the experiences of what people had on the outside were kind of coming to this culminating moment inside the courtroom. And, like you said, sort of like one minute you become an American citizen. And in a way, the ceremonies are very quick, like that reading of the oath, and kind of reminded me of getting married, where it's like you, there's so much build up, and then all of a sudden you say these few things, and then you're married. But it is kind of like a metamorphosis moment, right? Where you walk in the room one way, and you come out another. You know, something has changed in your life, and it kind of changes a lot of things for you, potentially.
WSHU: One of the people that you spoke with was really appreciative of the fact that they could now vote, and voting is a big issue right now. Could you just tell us what, what she told you about, what voting now meant?
LT: Yeah, there were a number of people who told me, you know, that voting was the thing they were most looking forward to. But I think the woman you're talking about was from Mexico, and she talked about, you know, freedom of expression, and said it's the most beautiful thing that we have. And I had also asked her if she had gone to, you know, some of these protests, or that we've seen over the past year, people making their voices heard that they don't agree with the policies of the government. And she said, No, you know, absolutely not. I think that, you know, I spoke to a number of people, also a woman who didn't end up in the story, but was from Scotland, who said that, basically, she decided to finally become a citizen, specifically because she wanted to get out there and protest, and she didn't feel comfortable doing that. So I think just that, yeah, that participation, that expression, and being able to do that secure in your rights and knowing that your status in this country won't be compromised by expressing yourself and casting your vote.
WSHU: You tried to get a hold of some people who have been disappointed because the ceremonies have been canceled for them. Could you just tell us a little bit about people who have gone through everything, and it's just the ceremony that's left, and now that's in limbo? They were not too keen to actually talk with you, right?
LT: Yeah. I think in one case, it was a woman who had been through a lot of trauma in her home country, and then in another case, someone who just declined to do an interview with us for whatever reason. I think people in this situation probably also have a reasonable concern that they don't want to compromise the chance to eventually get over that hurdle and become citizens. You know, USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) is doing more, what they say is a sort of more thorough look into certain people. But yeah, it, I mean, I think it's a devastating experience, from what I've read about it, and from the people we talked to at the advocacy groups that you know, you spend a lot of the time learning English, studying for this test, and going through all the kind of bureaucratic steps of the process, only to, in some cases, come to the ceremony and your name is just never called. And what is supposed to be a really happy day, and kind of the completion of a very long process, is just abruptly suspended.
WSHU: Is there anything they can look forward to? Is there any chance that there'll be a change to this in the near future?
LT: Yeah, I think we have seen, you know, signs with other kinds of cases of, you know, people who either have had deportation proceedings started, or where there is kind of some leeway, some back and forth. The decisions aren't absolute. Then, you know, I think that there is definitely still hope for people, whether their countries are taken off of this travel ban list, or whether, you know, it takes longer for the powers that be to vet them, but they eventually do make it through the process. I don't, it doesn't seem like it's necessarily permanent, at least for a lot of people.
WSHU: Well, that's something hopeful. Thank you so much, Laura.
LT: Thank you.
