On April 5, after over 16 years of living in the United States, I finally had the privilege of becoming an American citizen. Along with 139 people, we, new citizens of the United States of America, sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
We stood up to represent our old countries as their names were read aloud one by one. But it was when I rose my right hand high and pledged the oath of allegiance to the U.S. Constitution that I couldn’t stop thinking about what the concept of citizenship has become in this nation.
When I walked into the oath ceremony room, I was prepared for a simple transaction that would finally grant me the security I would have as a U.S. citizen, but I did not anticipate the emotion that would come with the moment. The truth is I felt torn about swearing allegiance to this nation at a time when it has ripped thousands of non-threatening immigrant families apart and when many families are still facing the costs of police brutality.
The moment I took my oath, I realized how lucky I was. I knew that citizenship would offer me the chance to take part in our democracy on top of many other benefits.
I knew, too, that with those freedoms and opportunities came enormous responsibility — to vote and use this new voice as a tool to speak out on issues like these. Today, becoming an American citizen isn’t about hard work or being “deserving” of it, but it is about being lucky enough to know the right people and to be under the right circumstances to be able to even have a shot.
The U.S. immigration process is complex; one does not simply get in line and apply for citizenship. I’m pretty sure that if the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants could, they would love to get “in line,” but that’s impossible when there is no line to begin with.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the waiting times for legal immigrant visas in the family category range from 19 months to 33 years. Clearly, paths for legal immigration to the U.S. are limited and backlogged in a system that only offers a few selective avenues for legal immigration.
Becoming an American citizen during this time has become an immense privilege that has brought to light the worst of the U.S. immigration system. The U.S. immigration system is broken. It is broken not because “murderers and rapists” are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border or because of “chain migration,” but because it neglects the dignity and stories of millions of families and individuals that came to this land of opportunities in search of their “American dream.”
Believing in the exceptionalism of the United States doesn’t mean I am turning a blind eye on the long history of racism, violence and exclusion that has characterized the U.S. for so long. It just means that I am aware that my story — the story of an immigrant girl from a working class family who went to a Title 1 public high school, who is now the first in her family to attend college — wouldn’t have been nearly as possible in any other country of the world.
Margie Sosa, a Contributing Writer for the Voice, can be reached for comment at MSosa20@wooster.edu.