Feds nix Pierce County citizenship ceremony again this year. That stinks.
Citizenship and Constitution Day came and went last week and you probably didn’t notice.
Unlike other holidays, there are no trees to trim, no stockings to hang, no special foods to prepare, and best of all, no one to shop for.
But at least one person in Pierce County noticed its passing Monday, and that’s Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson.
From 2011 to 2016, Anderson’s office marked the unsung holiday by hosting a citizen celebration ceremony, open to the public, at Mount Tahoma High School. Pierce County residents from around the globe filed into the gym as immigrants and left as U.S. citizens.
Anderson says 80 to 100 individuals came to the ceremony each year to raise their right hands and take the oath of citizenship. An additional 100 to 200 flag-waving audience members were there to cheer them on.
But this year, the ceremony was canceled for the second year in a row, due to a decision by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a division of Homeland Security. The agency cites “limited resources” as an explanation.
Three days a week the USCIS naturalizes citizens in its Seattle office, but once a year Pierce County residents had a chance to see family, friends and neighbors become citizens. That we no longer have this privilege is disheartening.
Granted, there are worse injuries to America’s once-great hospitality toward immigrants – for instance, the Trump administration’s curiously timed announcement Monday that it was cutting the number of refugees allowed in the U.S. next year to 30,000.
Still, like Anderson, we think the decision to cancel the ceremony stinks.
“Naturalization isn’t something you just read about in the New York Times; the immigration and naturalization process is alive all around us,” Anderson told us. “We like holding the public event so that family and friends can witness the ceremony as a celebration, of which we are all part.”
The swearing-in event is the final step to citizenship after completing an interview and passing a 100-question naturalization test. It’s also an opportunity for the Pierce County Auditor to shine a light on the rights and responsibilities that come with citizenship, including registering to vote.
Liz Dunbar, executive director of Tacoma Community House, a resource center for immigrants, wrote to Anderson saying she was also “very disappointed” by the cancellation. Tacoma Community House normally includes the ceremony as part of its Welcoming Week.
If there’s any good news coming out of this story, it’s that we have an auditor who doesn’t take “no” for an answer. When first notified of the cancellation in July 2017, Anderson called USCIS for an explanation. She was told that neighboring Thurston County had also requested a ceremony; therefore, Pierce County was denied.
Federal officials produced a bureaucratic response about needing to alternate ceremony locations to ensure access for all. That didn’t satisfy Anderson. She sought help from U.S. Rep. Denny Heck, but ultimately his inquiries were met with the same answer we were given: Those are the rules, folks, albeit unwritten.
A cynical editorial board might wonder if this is just one more brash move by the Trump administration to pull up the welcome mat for both legal and illegal immigrants.
We get that federal resources are limited, but the bulk of the Pierce County ceremony was paid for through grants, gifts and the Auditor’s budget. Local funds covered the gym rental, refreshments and printed programs. USCIS simply has to staff the events.
What Anderson told the families, friends and soon-to-be citizens at the 2012 ceremony remains true today: “We spend a lot of time arguing about immigration and citizenship and not enough time celebrating it.”
At this point, all we can do is look forward to next year’s Citizenship and Constitution Day and hope by then we have a better story to tell.