Thread: More people become U.S. citizens than are deported each year

Raise your hand and swear: More people become U.S. citizens than are deported each year

F3 MIN AGO
Dianne Solis, Senior writer with

On the frontlines of immigration, joy can still be found.

Every year, more people become U.S. citizens than become deportees.

And so Karina Almaguer, formerly of Ecuador, officially became a U.S. citizen on a recent, impossibly sunny day. She surrendered her green card, the immigrant’s trophy document of legal permanent residency. She listened to an operatic version of the Star-Spangled Banner.

She took the idealistic Pledge of Allegiance “with justice and liberty for all” and the bellicose oath of allegiance to “bear arms on behalf of the United States.”


Then, came President Donald Trump with a canned video message of superlatives for a crowd he couldn’t see. They came from countries like Zimbabwe, Zambia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Guatemala, and, of course, Mexico.

“You enjoy the full rights and the sacred duties that come with American citizenship,” Trump said from the video screen. “Very, very special.

There is no higher honor.”

Almaguer beamed.

She waved her paper flag on its black stick from the front row. She hugged the stranger next to her, a woman from Pakistan.

“This has always been my country,” said the 39-year-old, who lives in Flower Mound.

Her mother, who raised her alone, breathed life into a dream when she left Ecuador for New York with four-year-old Karina, Almaguer said.

And now, about 35 years later?

“I am able to vote and to announce and shout out loud what I always felt since I was little: I am an American.”


Manoj Mathew from India, center, is all smiles as he celebrates his American citizenship with daughters Heba, Helsa and Hasia Manoj (and wife Shany, not pictured), after a naturalization ceremony held at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Irving, Texas, on Tuesday, May 29, 2018. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)
(Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer)


The administrative assistant at a big shipping company let loose laughter and practically bounced in her red heels as she clutched her red-white-blue flag.

Nearby, Elizabeth Chanda-Evans was ready to match Trump’s superlatives. “This is the greatest country in the world,” said Chanda-Evans, who left Zambia for the U.S. nearly 14 years ago on Sept. 1.

“I used to dream of this country,” said the new citizen, who wore a black dress with cream pearls. She nearly sobbed after she finished reciting the allegiances to the United States.

Manoj Mathew of India stood tall in the first row, holding his hand over his heart as the national anthem was sung. He wore a perfectly pressed medium blue suit with a button-down shirt and golden yellow and blue striped tie.

And U.S. citizenship means?

“Privilege and freedom.”


Mohammad Jameel and Shahnaz Parveen, both from Pakistan, listen to the national anthem as they become American citizens at a naturalization ceremony held at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Irving, Texas, on Tuesday, May 29, 2018. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)
(Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer)

His wife, Shany, smiled.
With the ceremony over, his three small daughters pranced on the stage, each showing the other her hip-hop moves. The girls dressed in matching blue velvet shifts that screamed the day was special.

In fiscal year 2017, about 716,000 persons became U.S. citizens.

In fiscal year 2016, it was about 753,000.

And fewer than half that number were deported or removed from the country, according to federal figures.



Karina Almaguer, from Ecuador, is all smiles after becoming an American citizen at a naturalization ceremony held at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Irving, Texas, on Tuesday, May 29, 2018. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)
(Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer)

The nation’s first Naturalization Act of 1790 limited eligibility for naturalization to “a free white person” who had lived in the United States for at least two years.

It would evolve.

Most notably, after the Civil War, through the 14th Amendment of 1868, the law would expand U.S. citizenship to any person born on American soil. That covered emancipated slaves.

But an American-born son of Chinese immigrants had to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1895 to make it clear that he, Wong Kim Ark, was also a citizen by birthright according to the U.S. constitution.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 busted up annual quotas that restricted immigrant arrivals by race and national origin. A southern migration would so change the U.S.A. that Mexico has become the leading source for U.S. naturalizations in recent years. It’s ironic, considering that nation is at the heart of anti-immigrant sentiment.

In 2016, the Mexican-born made up 14 percent of naturalized U.S. citizens. The second highest percentage, at 6 percent, came from India. A very close third came from the Philippines.

And so on that impossibly sunny day, people from all over the globe took their oaths of allegiances at the Irving offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

When it ended, many of the freshly minted citizens headed to a corner of the room to pose for photos. They each snuggled with a blue-gray metal statue of Lady Liberty for a cheesy and glorious moment.

Outside in the sunshine, the Stars and Stripes fluttered in full sail.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immi...-deported-year

Considering we only deport less than 80,000 a year, that's not surprising. This failure to deport is a HUUUUGE problem, and a long-standing problem that needs to be solved immediately.

DISGUSTING...and how much did they rip off the American taxpayers in freebies?

I have a "dream" of a 10 year moratorium on ALL immigration!

I have a "dream" that they go home and build America on their soil...instead of TAKE from us.

My dream, too, Beezer. Hope this insanity stops soon. We've got to keep the pressure on Congress.

We have a lot of "single" parents on OUR soil trying to raise their children...NOT handed everything for free.

Now they are able to vote and bring their culture and destruction they left behind to our country!

They should NOT be able to vote for 20 years...and NEVER if they have been on government assistance.

They did NOT serve or fight for our freedom...they were GIVEN it on a Silver Platter with a generous heaping of GRAVY off the backs of US taxpayers...gee, I would be so "relieved" too if I were awarded this benefit I did not work or fight for.

So happy to be a "citizen"...sure you are...you are on easy street with NO skin in the game. Stay home and fight for your own damn country.