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AFP
Jersey City
Overjoyed new US citizens breathed a huge sigh of relief and celebrated Wednesday, largely - if not uniformly - critical of the Trump administration's orders for a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigrants.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services said it welcomed more than 25,000 new citizens in recognition of this year's President's Day in the week beginning February 14 at more than 162 ceremonies around the country.
Of seven new citizens who spoke to AFP at a ceremony in Jersey City, one of the most diverse towns in the United States, five expressed reservations about a blanket policy that now threatens millions with deportation.
"It's really scary," said Stephany Perez, 25, an employment specialist who migrated from Colombia more than 20 years ago with her family.
She was one of 26 people from 18 different countries, more than half of them in Central and South America, who become citizens in Jersey City a day after the crackdown was announced.
Although Perez arrived in the United States as a child with proper documentation, she says she feels safe only now. She still worries for her parents, despite the fact that they are permanent residents.
"Honestly, becoming a citizen is kind of like a sense of relief," she said."I'm personally afraid for where we're going, but I hope God helps us because I don't know what's going to happen."
The number of legal permanent residents applying for US citizenship in the nine months starting October 2015 was at its highest in four years, the Pew Research Centre found in a report last September.
Wednesday's ceremony opened with the national anthem and a video montage of photographs showing new immigrants through the ages, and included keynote remarks from a New Jersey state congressman, himself a former refugee from Cuba.
At the end, staff distributed US flags as the vocalist sang 'America The Beautiful' before each new citizen went up to receive a certificate.
Afterward, they posed for photographs and smiled for joy, one woman from Peru almost tearful for being able to celebrate with her children in a restaurant - 10 years after moving to be with her now ex-husband.
Foreign-born people account for 40.3 percent of Jersey City's population and 52.6 percent of people aged five or above speak a language other than English at home, according to recent census information.
Many of those who spoke to AFP said they were partly motivated by a desire to vote in last year's hugely divisive election between Donald Trump, the Republican notoriously tough on immigration, and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
