A mix of relief, uncertainty and hope among the 602 citizens sworn in a week after Trump’s win

They wore neckties and nice dresses. They waved small American flags. They posed for pictures with their kids, proudly holding up naturalization certificates.

Six hundred and two people from 85 countries became United States citizens in a Pasadena ceremony Tuesday morning.

It had been seven days since Donald Trump was elected president and it had been a tense week in America. The new citizens in the Pasadena Convention Center knew the campaign rhetoric often focused on immigrants like themselves.

Some had concerns about Trump and admitted they wanted to be naturalized now to be absolutely sure they wouldn’t be deported. Many were sad they had missed the chance to vote by a week.

Still, hope persisted.

“The United States is the best country in the whole wide world,” said Marco Somo, a 39-year-old North Hills resident who emigrated from the Philippines 10 years ago. “I know that the people will adapt with the changing times that we have. There’s so much negative happening in our society, but I’m still very optimistic for the future of our country.”

Somo, a Web programmer, said he wished he could have voted for Hillary Clinton. The campaign rhetoric about immigration and the uncertainty about how noncitizens would fare were on his mind when he applied for citizenship. He has a 4-year-old son at home, and his wife is pregnant with a baby boy due next month. For their sake, he was relieved to become a citizen.

During the presidential campaign, Trump called for a wall to be built along the U.S.-Mexican border, an increase in deportations of people in the country illegally and a ban on Muslims from entering the U.S. Since election night, hundreds of racially charged incidents have been reported, and protesters have flooded streets across the country, saying Trump’s words scared them.

Zakia Naseri, a 23-year-old nursing student who lives in Simi Valley, was born to Afghani parents and raised in Syria. She came to the U.S. with her family in 2006. Wearing a black-and-white hijab, she, too, became a citizen Tuesday.

It’s been troubling to have Muslim immigrants be such a focus for Trump, she said. Her parents worry about her and her siblings’ safety, and she always wonders what people are thinking about her.

“To be honest, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Naseri said. “But in this country you have freedom. You have the choice to make. Hopefully everything will be OK.”

With three strikes of a gavel, the convention center was transformed into a federal courtroom. Standing on a stage before six American flags, U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin led the crowd, their right hands raised, in the Naturalization Oath of Allegiance.

“From this day forward, your loyalty is to the United States, but America does not ask you to forget your cultural heritage and the land and people from which you came,” Olguin told them. “You have the right to proudly pass that heritage and culture on to your children.”

Olguin said he was raised by immigrant grandparents in a mostly Latino neighborhood in the San Gabriel Valley. They had no education and could not speak English, he said. His grandfather was a gardener, his grandmother a worker in a plastics factory. But they provided him the opportunity, he said, to make something of himself.

Eva Ceja, 64, came to the U.S. from Michoacan, Mexico, in 1978 with her husband. She worked in the fields, in kitchens, and as a housekeeper. She put six kids through college and now cares for her husband, who is on dialysis.

Ceja’s daughter, Nadia Abrica, was a community organizer for Hillary Clinton who encouraged Latinos to vote. Ceja said she would have voted for Clinton if she could. She was scared by Trump’s language about Mexicans, but said she’s contributed a lot to this country and wants to stay.

Of becoming a citizen Tuesday, she smiled and declared, “Divino” — Spanish for divine.

Jair Fray and his wife, Merville, of Westmont, had each spent most of their lives here. Jair was 2 when he came to the U.S. from Jamaica with his family. He carried a green card from 1982 with the words “Resident Alien” and a picture of himself as a young boy. Merville was a toddler when she was brought from Suriname.

Jair, 39, became a citizen in the morning ceremony, and Merville, 34, was naturalized in an afternoon ceremony as they juggled their young children. Jair said the election motivated him to finally pay the $680-per-person naturalization fee “just in case.” He said he trusts that governmental checks and balances will keep Trump in line.

His family cheered when he came out of the convention center with an American flag in his shirt pocket and naturalization certificate in his hand.

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“I’m not going to get deported!” he joked as his wife hugged him.

“You’re probably the vote that would have carried Hillary over!” his mother, Shirley Shamdas, a citizen, teased.

Merville said that even though she was in the country legally, she never felt totally assured she wouldn’t be deported. Tuesday, she said, was the perfect day — except for a little twinge of sadness.

“It’s supposed to be such a happy time,” she said. “I’m finally becoming an American. And I’m becoming an American to join a country where there’s just so much unrest and unhappiness. But then I just realized, ‘OK, this is my country. What can I do now as a citizen to bridge the gap or stand in solidarity with those that feel marginalized?’”

The Frays told their 1-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son it was a special day.

“We told our kids … they’re going to see the flag,” Merville said. “That Mom and Dad are going to be citizens. And we’re always going to stay together.”

hailey.branson@latimes.com

Twitter: @haileybranson

To read the article in Spanish, click here

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