200 new Americans’ dream

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Nearly 200 new American citizens recited, “I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America…,” at a naturalization ceremony Aug. 1 at the National Naval Aviation Museum aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. The museum’s atrium was converted into a courtroom for the ceremony that included four judges from U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Florida. For the participants, coming from 58 countries, their dreams of becoming a citizen was realized. The new citizens navigated the naturalization process and now share the common bond of being an American. “Your representation as an American citizen is not based on race or where you came from,” said Judge Hope T. Cannon, whose family moved from Vietnam to the United States when she was a young child. “We are all Americans.” More than 7.4M naturalized citizens were welcomed into the country over the past decade, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (Source: NAS Pensacola 08/01/19)