One Nation, Multiplied by 2,700 After Ceremony for New Citizens

Since he left Mexico City 21 years ago, Ernesto Barajas has never looked back on his decision to make the United States his home.

On Tuesday, he made it official. Flanked by his beaming family, Barajas joined about 2,700 other immigrants at the Sequoia Conference Center in Buena Park for the final citizenship ceremony of the year.

Amid a sea of fluttering U.S. flags, cries of delight heralded the pronouncement that the audience members were now U.S. citizens.

“I feel wonderful, like a brand-new person,” said Barajas, 42, of Fullerton. “[Being a citizen] you feel more free. You feel like everybody else.”

This year, an estimated 120,000 people were sworn in as citizens in the Los Angeles District, which includes seven counties, said Rico Cabrera, spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

That’s a jump from the 101,000 granted citizenship in 1997 but still below the record of 246,000 admitted in 1996 because of welfare reform. The government cut welfare benefits to legal immigrants, prompting many people to seek citizenship to continue getting aid, Cabrera said.

For most of the applicants, the swearing-in day on Tuesday was a long-awaited event. Most people had waited an average of 13 to 15 months for their application to be processed. INS officials say their goal for 1999 is to cut that to 12 months or less, said Cabrera.

It took Barajas three years to get his citizenship, but he said Tuesday that it had been worth the wait.

“This is my home,” he said, “but now I feel like I really belong.”

His sentiments were echoed by Martha Jimenez, 33, of Anaheim.

Jimenez was also born in Mexico but has lived in California since she was 5. She was motivated in part because of new laws dealing with citizenship, but also because of her family’s urging.

“I feel proud to be a citizen. I’m going to live here and die here,” she said. “My 15-year-old son encouraged me to do this. He told me, “I’m so glad, Mom. You’re going to be an American.’ ”

The top five countries of origin of the new citizens sworn in Tuesday were Mexico, Vietnam, the Philippines, El Salvador and Iran.

Like many of his new fellow citizens, Mahmood Jazayeri also had a story to tell.

Jazayeri, 51, of Northridge, fled with his family from Iran 11 years ago.

“We didn’t agree with the government and we gave up hope that it would change for good. For the sake of my wife and my two small kids, we had to leave,” he said.

Jazayeri said his family moved from place to place throughout Eastern Europe and other parts of the world before finally landing in the United States. After having lived in so many places, he says adamantly that there is no comparison to the U.S.

Being granted citizenship here is a dream come true, he said.

“You feel like you’ve become part of a great country, and secondly, you feel accepted like no other place in the world. I love it here.”