Glad to Be Home : 129 Become Citizens at Naturalization Ceremony

None of the people gathered outside the courthouse Wednesday came to the United States for the same reason, but they all decided to stay.

Behroz Zarrabian left Iran 15 years ago to attend West Coast University in Los Angeles. When Shiite Muslim fundamentalists took over the country in 1979, he decided not to return.

Michael Burge left New Zealand in 1971 “to seek my fortune,” he said. Last year, after Burge’s mother died and his father went into a nursing home, he realized “this is my country now.”

Julie Yan came to Southern California from Hong Kong six years ago to visit her American uncle. The relaxed pace of life here and the approaching Chinese takeover of the British colony prompted her to apply for permanent residency.

Zarrabian, Burge and Yan were among the 129 immigrants from 27 countries who became U.S. citizens Wednesday afternoon during a naturalization ceremony outside the Ventura County Hall of Justice.

The ceremony culminated in a citizenship oath administered by Sheila Gonzalez, executive officer and clerk for the Superior and Municipal Court system, and recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Each new citizen was called to the dais later in the afternoon and received certificates of naturalization, congratulatory handshakes from a smattering of local dignitaries and a new American flag, which many proudly posed with later.

“I encourage you to take your responsibilities as a new citizen seriously,” Presiding Judge Edwin M. Osborne told the group.

“Among those responsibilities is your responsibility to vote. We encourage you to study the issues and candidates, and please exercise this right whenever you have the opportunity.”

About 25 people headed directly to a voter registration table operated by the county Elections Division at the back of the plaza.

Most of the newly naturalized citizens declined to state a political party preference, according to one voter registrar, although most of those who did take a party affiliation were new Republicans.

“I am for their economic policies,” Zarrabian, a Camarillo real estate broker, said just after he registered to vote. “I pay taxes, so I want to at least have a chance to participate.”

Many of those taking the oaths said they have lived here for so long that they already feel like Americans, but said there was importance to the symbolic statement of accepting citizenship.

Sandra and Trevor Thorpe immigrated from London nearly 20 years ago with their son Justin. Trevor took photos as his wife, who wore star-spangled shoes and a red, white and blue outfit, and son marched onstage. Then he joined them.

“The last time I went back to England it really didn’t even feel like home anymore,” Sandra Thorpe said.

“It just seemed like it was time after that,” Trevor Thorpe added. “Now we’re having friends over for Thanksgiving who are from New Zealand, and we’re going to try to convince them to do the same thing.”

Ellen Wolfe, a 10-year U.S. resident originally from the Philippines, said her family would celebrate her citizenship by spending Thanksgiving in Las Vegas, the most appropriate place they could think of to celebrate her adopted country.

“This really means a lot to me,” Wolfe said, “because I’m going back to the Philippines in December and I’ll be going back as an American. If Imelda Marcos has anything planned, or if there’s any trouble at all, I know I can get out.”

Oxnard resident Mary Carmen, a San Diego State University student, was brought to the United States two days after she was born, and said she was proud to finally become an American.

“To me it’s a big deal, because I get to vote. I really wanted to participate, but being a Mexican citizen in the United States there is not really too much you can do politically,” Carmen said.

Day-before-Thanksgiving naturalization ceremonies were once an annual event in Ventura County. The practice was begun again last year after a break of few years, but Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said Wednesday that future immigrants will have to travel to Los Angeles to take citizenship oaths.