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\f0\fs24 \cf0 [MUSIC]\ My name is Wilmar Lopez and today I am an
American.\ I\'92m Chamu Chimhau and I\'92m proud to say
today I am an American.\ My name is Francisco Diaz and today I\'92m
an American.\ My name is Nila Mumbardi and I\'92m an American
Citizen. Woo! \ To America\'92s newest citizens it is a great
honor to serve as your Commander and Chief and it is my greatest pleasure to be among
the first to greet you as a fellow American.\ I take this obligation freely, without any
metal reservation or purpose of evasion so help me God. Congratulations new citizens.
(applause)\ It means everything. I\'92m honored, I\'92m
proud, I\'92m humbled. It\'92s a lot of emotions going on inside;\
because this is something I\'92ve dreamt of as a child. All my life I\'92ve dreamt of
this moment to become an American Citizen.\ It means so much. It\'92s a day where I feel
proud. I feel like I\'92ve joined something special. I joined a great community and great
country.\ Secretary Napolitano I now present to you
46 candidates that have applied to become citizens of the United States.\
Each of the candidates has been interviewed by an officer of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services. \ Secretary Napolitano, I now recommend that
these candidates be administered the oath of allegiance. Thereby admitting them to United
States citizenship. \ I remember my first naturalization ceremony.
And I was there\'85I didn't know what to expect but when you see the excitement and the joy
\ and the tears from the persons that are participating
in a naturalization ceremony, it just gives you such a great feeling of honor, patriotism
and all those kind of things go through my mind.\
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\f1 \cf0 We were at a ceremony and the judge\'85It was a judicial ceremony. The judge allowed
the candidates to stand up and say a few words and they were just sort of popping up all
over the room and one woman said the reason she loved America was because (pause a little
teary) people can live in a house.\
\f0 Oh, I always get a lump in my throat when I do naturalization ceremonies. For one, I'm
happy for the applicants. When I was doing interviews it was nice to see the people that
I passed or came to interview for me, go and become a citizen.\
It brings a lot of emotion to me, especially it brings tears to my eyes and the reason
being is because I, myself, was an immigrant at once. I got naturalized 24 years ago and
anytime I see anyone getting to become a citizen, it just brings back memory to me.\
For someone who came through this process myself, it's a very big emotion.\
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\f1 \cf0 This is a very exciting moment for me because since I was young boy, I dreamt
of becoming an American and today was a day that was meant to be.\
So i'm very happy and I look forward to serving this country and being an honorable citizen
until I pass on.\ Today is special day for me because today
I become an American Citizen. It\'92s been a long time since I wanted it to be, so today
I\'92m really, really, proud of it and I\'92m so excited to be one.\
\pard\pardeftab720\sl280\sb100\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \cf0 To Director Mayorkas and all the dedicated
folks at US Citizenship and Immigration Services, thank you for your help to these men and women
and so many of our troops to realize their dreams of citizenship.\
My citizenship is something that is very special and even more special working for this agency.
To see people going thru the process and never taking anything for granted. \
Citizenship means to me, sorry I get emotional\'85something that changed my life. Because if we had remained
in the place where I was born i would have had no opportunities, \
I would have had no freedom and this country, the USA, means to me everything. I know that
my children will be born in freedom and\ they will not have to go through what I went
through or what my family went through and that means absolutely everything to me.\
I\'92m talking from a point that I\'92m an immigrant myself it changed your life completely.
You become fully participant of the system, you can do a lot when you become a citizen.
\ It kind of brings me back to my family, my
grandparents who came, immigrated here from the Czech Republic and basically like everybody
else they came here for freedom and opportunity\ and I think it makes me feel proud to be a
citizen myself of this country and it touches close to home.\
\pard\tx18\tx738\tx61234\tx61954\tx62674\tx63394\tx64114\tx64834\pardeftab720\sb100\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \cf0 When you return home tonight do what
I did and put your citizenship documents in the safest and most secure place you can find
\ because this piece of paper represents more
than anything else in your life and here is mine.(applause)\
\pard\pardeftab720\sl280\sb100\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural \cf0 I think it's one of the life changing
events, an epiphany that you know this came from a generation of work. It wasn't just
me that stood up, it was everyone that allowed me to come here and stand up\
I have read the files of people that have come before me. I have seen their journey
through paper. I have heard their testimonies \
and I don\'92t think an American Citizen, someone born here will ever understand some
of the things that people have gone through to get to America.\
All of my childhood I heard about stories of immigration and never understood it. \
But now that I work for immigration I understand the whole process and what it meant to them
emotionally and all of sacrifices my family had to make\
And when I hold the flag, this little flag that we give to the citizens on the day of
their naturalization ceremony, it gives me pride to wave this, especially at the very
last portion of the ceremony itself\ Being a grandson of immigrants, my mom\'92s
parents came here from Italy and Poland respectively. My grandmother actually naturalized through
this court, came through this office, that I\'92m now the field office director.\
Belonging to, you know this place is very important to me especially when I look at
the plight of so many other people in other countries \
who are running from all kinds of persecution to get to this place. I mean, this place is
the best place in the world.\ And I want to thank especially U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services led by Alejandro Mayorkas and all the work that they are doing
in order to make sure that men and women can fulfill their dream of becoming citizens.\
For me to lead this agency, to really be a part of this agency that makes those ceremonies
possible is especially powerful because I myself am an immigrant, \
I myself was naturalized and I realized how much work and how much dedication on the part
of this agency is invested to make each and every ceremony possible \
I have so much pride in the work that goes into the naturalization ceremonies both internationally
as well as in the US and I think that's something that, \
I have pride in the fact that that's the work that we do, I have pride in the fact that
our employees do it so well and I have pride in the fact that we're naturalizing people
to participate in our country as United States citizens\
This country really has a knack for making dreams come true and you'll see that in countless
stories, you'll see that in stories about employees, you'll see that in the stories
of folks that are naturalized\ My name is Chantal Simon Phillips, I'm an
MRSN on the USS Nasau and I'm now an American Citizen\
My name is Yoselin Carter and today I\'92m an American.\
My name is Yolie Anderson and I'm now an American citizen\
My name is Andre Kessler and today I'm an American\
My name is Mercedita Banhill-Robertson and I'm a US citizen, Hooray!\
\ \
\ \
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