Young Americans : 1,000 Immigrants From 61 Countries Are Sworn In as U.S. Citizens

It took more than a century, but Isabel Melendez finally fulfilled her lifelong dream of becoming a U.S. citizen Thursday.

During a festive ceremony at the Sequoia Club, the 102-year-old Melendez, who first came to the United States in 1918, was among 1,000 immigrants from 61 countries who took oaths as new citizens before U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor.

“I’m proud to be an American,” Melendez, a native of Durango, Mexico, who speaks only Spanish, said through her grandson, Alonzo Cardenas, as she emerged from the half-hour ceremony clutching a tiny American flag. “But at my age, I’m just waiting (for) what the Lord would do.”

The English-language requirement of the citizenship test is waived for elderly residents such as Melendez if they have been permanent residents for at least 15 years. But they still must pass oral tests in their native languages.

Orange County’s first mass naturalization ceremony in nearly three years came at a time of growing sentiment against illegal immigrants in California.

Proposition 187, a statewide initiative on the November ballot, would deny illegal immigrants and their children public education, non-emergency health care and social services. Polls show the measure has widespread support.

But many of those interviewed after the ceremony said the unfriendly climate had nothing to do with their desire to become U.S. citizens. They also said they want to make their voices heard on Election Day. Citizenship confers the right to vote and to run for public office, except the presidency.

Patty Piroska Banyai took the oath to have “a country to call home.”

“I did not know who I was,” said Banyai, a Romanian of Hungarian ancestry who said she was discriminated against in her homeland. She came to the United States with her family in 1988.

“I can talk more freely now,” she said, adding that she will register to vote immediately in order to be able to participate in the November election.

Juan Ruiz and his wife, Paulina, both 69, left Spain for Canada in 1951 but have lived in Garden Grove since the early 1970s. Both were naturalized Thursday, and now “we can live here forever,” Juan Ruiz said.

He said he will vote against Proposition 187. “It’s not justified,” Ruiz said. Illegal immigrants “are already here, and they need help. They pay taxes too. What we need is to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in.”

But Sahar Imanabadi, who came to the United States from Iran with her family in 1981, said illegal immigrants should not receive public assistance.

“They should be denied those services,” said Imanabadi, 18, a student at Irvine Valley College. “Other people came to the U.S. the right way, the legal way. They worked for it.”

Richard K. Rogers, director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s district office in Los Angeles, said that a naturalization ceremony in Orange County will be held at least every three months, so applicants will not have to make the trip to Los Angeles in the future.

“Naturalization has become one of our priorities,” Rogers said, adding that the INS citizenship branch interviews applicants throughout the year and expects to approve about 90,000 citizenship applications this year.

Immigrants are eligible for citizenship after five years of legal residence, three years if they are spouses of U.S. citizens. Aspiring citizens must show good moral character, pass a basic U.S. history and civics test and demonstrate a knowledge of English.

For some of those on the receiving end of the department’s services, Thursday brought pure joy.

“It’s the best day of my life,” said Anna Lisa Ranson Denardo, a native of England who came to the United States on a student visa in 1979 and became a legal resident in the early 1980s. “I’ve waited for this all these years.”

Eric Thai, 10, automatically became a U.S. citizen when his father and mother, Kenny and Phung Thai, were sworn in Thursday. Children under 18 gain citizenship at the same time as their naturalized parents.

“I’m an American now,” said the fifth-grader at Neomia B. Willmore Elementary School in Westminster. “Kids at school can’t make fun of me anymore.”