New U.S. citizens take on new rights – and responsibilities

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

One woman – speaking moments before becoming a full-fledged American citizen – said she was looking forward to enhanced opportunities “to be my own boss, run my own business and work hard” in a small enterprise she was just getting off the ground in her adopted country.

Another woman petitioning for U.S. citizenship – who first came to Louisiana from her native Mexico at age 12 – marveled at the access Americans have to a solid education. She said she knew from the get-go that “the United States was the country for me.”

“My family has been very prosperous because of the opportunities they’ve had in this country – and so have I,” said the woman, choking back tears. “Sorry I’m super emotional, but I’ve dreamed of this day for a long time!”

On Sept. 21, sixth and seventh graders from Ursuline Academy gathered in their auditorium for the rare opportunity to watch 70 individuals became naturalized American citizens. Rising from their seats as each of their names was announced, the petitioners raised their right hands to repeat the Oath of Allegiance led by Ivan Lemelle, Senior U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The petitioners pledged: “Solemnly, freely and without mental reservation, I hereby renounce under oath all allegiance to any foreign state. My fidelity and allegiance from this day forward is to the United States of America. I pledge to support, honor and be loyal to the United States, its Constitution and its laws.”

Capped off students’ citizenship studies

The ceremony, which included an opportunity for Ursuline students to ask the newly-minted Americans about the joys and challenges of their unique citizenship journeys, was a fitting culmination to a cross-curricular project the sixth and seventh graders had completed in their social studies and art classes.

“We learned about our rights – and that starts with the Bill of Rights, individual freedoms that many in this room have never experienced,” said Cathryn Walsh, the Ursuline teacher who led the social studies piece of the cross-curricular unit on citizenship.

The Ursuline students also traced the historic roots of each of the Bill of Rights’ 10 amendments. For example, they learned that the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures in their homes by the government, was formulated in response to the practice of British authorities, in pre-Revolutionary America, to rummage through people’s homes for anything, at any time, with little to no oversight.

“My students were so thrilled, and actually surprised, when I showed them the test (the petitioners) had to take to become a citizen,” Walsh said. “It’s very difficult, and many of them said they could not have begun to pass this test. They realized, ‘Wow, it’s so easy for us who were born American, but these people have to go through years of testing and interviews in order to be in this position (today)!’”

The art component of the citizenship project had the students creating congratulatory ceramic ornaments – shaped like the state of Louisiana and painted to resemble an American flag – to give to the petitioners as a memento of their special day.

During the ceremony’s keynote address, Janis van Meerveld, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, told the soon-to-be citizens that she was in their shoes back in 1986, the year she became a naturalized American herself.

“Exactly 30 years (after that event), I was sworn in as a United States magistrate judge in the same courthouse where I became a citizen,” said van Meerveld, sharing a few details from her own background: She was born in Canada, grew up in Germany and Belgium and was the daughter of a Dutch father, an English mother and an American stepmother.

“Maybe some of you have complicated backgrounds, too!” van Meerveld said, reeling off some of the rights the 70 petitioners would be enjoying as American citizens, including freedom of expression and worship, the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, and the right to be tried promptly and fairly in a court of law in front of a jury.

Other than being able to run for president or vice president, “all the rights and privileges that make this country great are yours,” van Meerveld told the group. “We have no second-class citizens in this country. … A native-born American has no more rights than you who acquire your citizenship here today,” she said, mentioning some famous immigrants who had obtained American citizenship. That list included two secretaries of state – Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger – and another overachiever, Albert Einstein.

Van Meerveld said our rights as American citizens also come with some serious responsibilities, including supporting and defending the Constitution, “the bedrock of our democracy” for the last 236 years. 

“All of us, together, are the voices of democracy,” van Meerveld said, urging the petitioners to invest in their nation of choice by getting involved in their communities, volunteering, staying informed, registering to vote and then voting “every chance you get.”

“Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy – the ballot box is the one place where everyone is equal – one person, one vote. This is your voice!” van Meerveld told the new citizens. “Run for public office! Be the voice of democracy! This country – your country – needs you!”

The significance of the ceremony’s venue – Ursuline Academy, the oldest, continuously operating school for girls and the oldest Catholic school in the United States – was not lost on the attendees.

Dr. Karen Jakuback, academy president, shared her pride in the 1727-founded school’s legacy of hospitality and the education of girls, regardless of their ethnicity, country of origin or economic status. The Ursuline Sisters, who arrived in New Orleans “almost 50 years before the U.S. was even formed,” welcomed the Spanish when Louisiana was under the rule of Spain; aided both American and British soldiers wounded in the Battle of New Orleans; and fought for the oppressed as they taught enslaved African Americans, Native Americans and Free People of Color to read and write, Jakuback said.

“The boarding school housed on this property for many years (also) was home to many Cuban students who fled a Communist regime,” noted Jakuback. “As recently as 2010, Ursuline assisted Haitian students after their devastating earthquake.”

U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry pointed to another sign of the Ursuline Sisters’ tenacity. A letter, written in 1812 to the Sisters by President Thomas Jefferson, reassured them that Louisiana’s new status as a state would not result in the American government interfering with their mission of educating girls of all backgrounds. Judge Guidry urged all Americans to learn more about the Ursuline Sisters’ loving embrace of all cultures at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor museum on State Street and the Old Ursuline Convent in the French Quarter.

After the ceremony, representatives from the National Council of Jewish Women and the League of Women Voters staffed a voters’ registration booth offering on-site registration to the new citizens. Officials from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs were also on hand to provide information on how to apply for a passport.

Assisting at the event were the Color Guard of Brother Martin High School’s Navy Jr. ROTC (which backed the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of the National Anthem) and the Ursuline High School Choir, which performed “My Country, ’Tis of Thee,” “Sing Your Song” and “America the Beautiful.”

A post-ceremony reception featured treats tied to the various traditions and cultures of Ursuline’s school families.

More photos of the event can be found on the Clarion Herald’s Facebook page.

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