A Determined New Citizen Takes the Oath

In a moving and tearful ceremony here Friday, a 26-year-old Taiwanese immigrant with Down’s syndrome took the oath to become a U.S. citizen, aided by a rare private bill signed earlier this week by President Bush.

Surrounded by 124 other new citizens, whose countries of origin ranged from El Salvador to Ethiopia to Poland, Michael Wu led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance as his mother watched him sworn in as an American citizen.

Afterward, Wu stood by his mother’s side and talked happily of exploring his next dream--becoming a jet pilot. “I wanted to be a citizen more than anything,” he said.

Wu, who emigrated from Taiwan with his family in 1980, failed six times to pass a naturalization exam, despite hours of preparation. Wu, who speaks Chinese and English, said he longed to become a citizen because his parents and two older brothers are.

The private bill that made Wu’s citizenship possible was spearheaded by Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego), who said he made “an awful lot of phone calls” and put in “hours and hours” of work after being convinced that no one wanted or deserved citizenship more than Wu.

Lowery presented Wu with the pen used by the President to sign the bill. Wu said afterward that, come November, he will feel privileged to have a chance to vote for Bill Clinton or Ross Perot, “but I will vote for President Bush, because he helped me.”

The bill exempts Wu from the naturalization exam by considering him a child under 18 for the purposes of citizenship. Children under 18 can become citizens without taking the exam if their parents are citizens.

At the ceremony, held in the War Memorial Building in Balboa Park with U.S. District Judge John Rhoades presiding, Wu’s teachers said that Down’s syndrome, a congenital disease, causes mental disabilities that make memorization almost impossible.

Answers to questions on U.S. history and politics are required of all immigrants who wish to become citizens. Wu’s mother, Caroline Wu, 63, said he had faltered each time in memorizing the names of the 13 Colonies and the freedoms guaranteed by the 1st Amendment.

Wu had been taking such tests since 1985, “and he had grown increasingly frustrated,” his mother said. “It had made him sad, but now he is very happy.”

Caroline Wu said her son’s deep desire to become a citizen stemmed from wanting to be “just like his brothers, not to feel that he was different in some way.” Wu said her son will continue to work assembling goods at a facility for the Assn. of Retarded Citizens.

Lowery said private bills are “extremely difficult to pass” but added that Wu had a wish for citizenship that no one could deny.