New U.S. citizens share peace, happiness after Eugene ceremony

Twenty-five new U.S. citizens took a formal oath of allegiance at a naturalization ceremony Thursday, Oct. 23, at U.S. District Court in Eugene.

For those taking the oath, it was far from a solemn day.

“I feel very good. Honestly, I’m very happy and thankful,” said Sonia Nolasco, 33, after the roughly half-hour ceremony.

Nolasco said she came to the United States from the Central American country of Honduras in 2013. The process of becoming a citizen wasn’t easy, she said — her application was at first declined.

Once her application advanced to the point where she secured an appointment for the mandatory interview, “my nerves were off the charts,” she said in Spanish. On a scale of 100, her nerves reached 115, she said, smiling.

Nolasco said she went through the work to become an American for “better life opportunities, job opportunities, and a better future for me and my daughter.”

Those taking part in the ceremony came from 16 different countries.

“Each of you have taken a different journey to be here,” said Senior U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken. “It’s not easy, I know that.”

Interest rising in citizenship

In Lane County, nonprofit organizations including Plaza de Nuestra Comunidad and Catholic Community Services of Lane County provide help to those seeking to become U.S. citizens.

“There’s definitely increased interest in applying for citizenship,” Christine Zeller-Powell, director of the Refugee and Immigrant Services Program at Catholic Community Services of Lane, said in a phone interview.

“Especially lately, we’ve been having quite a number of seniors who have been green card holders for 20, 30 years come and say, yeah, they’ve decided it’s finally time to get that paperwork done,” Zeller-Powell said.

Zeller-Powell said she didn’t know when asked what might be driving the trend.

Under President Donald Trump, stepped-up immigration enforcement has been a priority, and Jorge Trinidad, 46, spoke about that anxiety when asked what first came to mind after gaining his U.S. citizenship.

“I guess you could say, it’s peace,” Trinidad said after a pause. “See, for the longest time, not being a citizen, you have that fear. Now, I don’t necessarily have that fear anymore, of being shipped out.”

Trinidad said he first came to the United States as a child from Mexico, but was brought into the country without authorization. It took a rejected application to join the Navy after high school for him to understand his status, and he opted to voluntarily leave for Mexico “with the idea of not coming back.”

But he returned to the United States in 2020 after marrying a U.S. citizen. He and his wife, Patricia, were married in Mexico five years earlier, and she encouraged him to become a citizen, he said. She attended the ceremony Thursday.

“Oh, yeah, I was pushing,” she said, both of them laughing.

Changes to requirements

Zeller-Powell, the attorney, said by phone that there’s also been changes to citizenship requirements. Her organization is now advising applicants to secure letters of recommendation from “community members like employers or teachers, neighbors, family members, people from their religious [or] community groups.”

“This is new,” Zeller-Powell said. “There’s always been a requirement to show good moral character to become a citizen. In the past, it was more like an absence of negative factors.”

Now, applicants are asked to “affirmatively show that you have good moral character.”

It’s something that started just a few months ago, and “we’re not exactly sure how it’s going to be adjudicated,” Zeller-Powell said. It generally takes over half a year for an application to be processed, followed by a required interview.

English fluency isn’t required, but basic questions must be answered as part of the process, Zeller-Powell said. 

“They’ll probably be asked some questions about, ‘How did you get to the office this morning? Did you drive? Did you ride the bus? Who did you come with? What time did you have to get up? What did you eat for breakfast?’ Just basic, basic stuff,” Zeller-Powell said. Applicants must also pass a civics test generally given in English.

At the ceremony, the 25 applicants raised their right hands during the administering of the  formal oath, which calls upon those taking it to “renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty.” The group answered affirmatively.

Afterward, Aiken talked about what citizenship is — and what it is not.

“Citizenship does not mean abandoning what is unique about you and your family,” Aiken said. “The strength and beauty of this nation is its diversity and its celebration of multiple cultures.”

Aiken said, “Together on this journey, we can build a society that fosters growth, compassion and progress to pass on to the next generation and next generation, and generations after that.”

She spoke about how in the U.S. democracy “we are blessed with certain inalienable rights, the right to free speech, (and) what I consider to be two co-equal rights, the right to vote.”

It was the fourth and last such ceremony of the year at the federal courthouse in Eugene. Larger cities have more such ceremonies, with the federal courthouse in Portland having 22 such ceremonies scheduled for this year.

Angelle Stone, a longtime U.S. resident, said that when she first chose to pursue citizenship, others expressed surprise at her decision.

“I’ve been telling people I’ve been going to do this. They were like, ‘Oh, are you sure?’ Because maybe they’re not happy with the political situation,” Stone said. “And it makes me sad, because I don’t think people here realize how free we are in the United States.”

Stone, 56, said she’s been living in the United States for 33 years, coming from Canada because of her husband, David.

Angelle Stone said she took to heart Aiken’s remarks about the responsibility of citizenship.

“I think the responsibility that she outlined in terms of voting and contributing to society was a really important aspect of it. You know, I’ve lived here for a long time, and I am a part of a community, and I do a lot of things, but it takes on a new meaning when you see it through those eyes,” Stone said.