Mayor Helps Mint New Americans

By FARAZ T. TOOR

For years, Carlos Bernard’s job was to call people and remind them to vote.

Now, someone can remind him.

Bernard joined nearly 200 other new citizens Thursday morning at a naturalization ceremony that Mayor Bill de Blasio attended, where applicants were sworn in as American citizens.

“I was about to cry,” said Bernard, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago. “It was a long time in the making.”

The ceremony was held at the Department of Records near City Hall. A district judge usually presides over naturalization ceremonies, but de Blasio joined him and spoke after citizen applicants took their oaths of allegiance.

“Every one of us is the child, grandchild, great-grandchild of an immigrant,” de Blasio said to the crowd, the first time he has spoken at a naturalization ceremony since he became mayor. “None of this comes easy. By your very presence, you’re making us strong.”

After de Blasio spoke, the citizen applicants received their Certificates of Naturalization, which officially deemed them U.S. citizens.

“We are very, very, very happy. The ceremony was fantastic,” said Elizabeth Kaakyire, who was born in Ghana. “We are thankful for all [the city] has done.”

“I’ve been here in the U.S. for 40 years….I missed voting in elections,” Bernard said about not filing for citizenship until recently. “Now I can vote.”

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) processes naturalization applications and provides federal courts throughout the country with a list of candidates it selects to be naturalized.

Ordinarily, the USCIS’s New York office holds naturalization ceremonies every Friday at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse on Pearl Street, but Thursday’s was held in concert with ceremonies throughout the country in honor of Citizenship Day, which celebrates new citizens.

Separately, the USCIS also announced Thursday that it will award almost $10 million in grants to 40 organizations in 26 states to help permanent residents prepare and apply for U.S. citizenship.

The USCIS said it would fund organizations until Sept. 2017, including five New York ones, the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, HANAC, Inc., Make The Road New York, the SEIU 1199 League Training and Upgrading Fund, and Shorefront YM-YWHA of Brighton-Manhattan Beach.