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  • Freedom, tears of joy for 641 new citizens

    Providence Journal , RI
    March 8 2005

    Freedom, tears of joy for 641 new citizens

    "God bless America," says Fania Shpiller, 77, who is among the people
    from 71 countries who became naturalized citizens yesterday.


    BY KAREN LEE ZINER
    Journal Staff Writer

    PROVIDENCE -- Fania Shpiller fled Nazi persecution in Ukraine. Vijay
    Shastry left India to pursue higher education. Abdulai Muritala came
    here from Nigeria with his soccer club, then married an American
    woman.

    Shpiller, Shastry and Muritala were among 641 people who took the
    oath of allegiance yesterday at Veterans Memorial Auditorium during
    one of the largest naturalization ceremonies ever held in Rhode
    Island.

    The new citizens came from 71 countries -- from Antigua and Barbuda,
    Bangladesh and Bosnia-Herzegovina, from the Dominican Republic,
    Guyana and Laos, to Togo, Turkey, Vietnam and Yugoslavia. Many had
    fled war, genocide, enslavement, drought and all manner of
    persecution. Some came simply for opportunity.

    "I dream to come to America. America is a free land for all people,"
    said Shpiller, 77, a Jewish refugee who survived three years in a
    Nazi ghetto during World War II.

    "I am happy because now I am a citizen of the United States. I hope
    all my life [to do this]," she said. Tears welled in Shpiller's eyes
    as she clutched a tiny paper flag. "God bless America," she said.

    Shastry, 37, who left India in 1989 to earn a doctorate in philosophy
    at Ohio State University, arrived more than two hours before
    yesterday's 9:30 a.m. ceremony and claimed a front-row seat.

    "I'm very excited," said Shastry. "I think it's a very big event in
    my life -- in everybody's life."

    Maria Centeio, a 95-year-old from Cape Verde who has lived in Rhode
    Island for 20 years, wore a green-flowered dress and white pearls.

    "She don't sleep nothing last night. She's afraid to be late," said
    Centeio's daughter, Louisa C. Resende of Connecticut. Resende left at
    2 a.m. to drive to Providence; she said she had a celebratory cake
    waiting.

    Magistrate Judge Jacob Hagopian, who swore in the new citizens,
    described his own mother's flight from religious persecution that
    necessitated an arduous, four-day trek across the Syrian desert.

    "My parents came to escape the Armenian genocide," said Hagopian.
    "They were victims because they were Christian." Just as his parents
    endured hardship and heartbreak in order to survive, said Hagopian,
    "I know it hasn't been an easy journey for many of you."

    Hagopian urged those taking the oath of allegiance yesterday to
    perpetuate their own culture. "Pass it on to your children and keep
    it alive," said Hagopian. "You and your culture are America."

    EVEN THE U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service acknowledges that
    efficiency has not been its trademark, and that for years, huge
    backlogs have delayed people's efforts to become citizens of this
    country.

    But that is changing, the government says, and yesterday's
    super-sized naturalization ceremony was attributed to the national
    effort to reduce the backlog of applications for immigration
    benefits.

    Nationwide, the Citizenship and Immigration Service has reduced the
    backlog from 3.8 million cases in January 2004 to 1.3 million cases
    in January 2005, according to Jeff Trecartin, officer in charge of
    the agency's office in Providence.

    In October 2003, a Rhode Island resident who filed an application for
    naturalization had to wait more than 17 months for a decision,
    Trecartin said; by October 2004, that projected wait had been reduced
    to less than 10 months.

    The size of yesterday's ceremony "shows that every day, we are
    getting closer to eliminating our backlog of pending applications,"
    said Trecartin.

    That momentum "will carry us to our goal of processing all
    immigration applications in under six months by the end of 2006,"
    Trecartin predicted.

    According to Trecartin, the ceremony yesterday was eclipsed only by
    one last year involving 698 people. Two more in the 600-800 range are
    planned for this year. Because of its size, yesterday's ceremony was
    held at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, rather than U.S. District
    Court, where such events are usually held.

    "This is the best part of immigration -- to see people do things
    right," Trecartin said, as he watched the newly naturalized citizens
    pose for pictures after swearing their oaths of allegiance.

    The fact that 71 countries were represented "tells us that Rhode
    Island is a very diverse state," said Trecartin, "and that people
    want to come here from everywhere -- people are already here from
    everywhere."

    People from the Dominican Republic made up the largest share by far
    of the new citizens, with 193 people sworn in from that country.

    Dominicans are among the largest Hispanic groups in Rhode Island, and
    Hispanics represent the state's largest minority population.

    The next-largest groups yesterday were people from Portugal (78),
    Cape Verde (43), and Guatemala (40).

    The large numbers of Liberians (22) and Nigerians (17) reflect data
    collected by the International Institute of Rhode Island that show
    "Africans represent the state's fastest-growing new populations of
    immigrants and refugees."

    The waves of Cambodian, Hmong, Lao and Vietnamese refugees that began
    arriving in 1979 and continued to come throughout the 1980s and early
    1990s have now diminished.

    The institute, which is the state's largest immigration agency, noted
    last summer that there is "a steady increase in numbers of new
    refugees and immigrants from the African continent, primarily from
    Liberia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and recently
    Somalia."

    Vlademar Leite, 36, who lives in Middletown and owns a doughnut shop,
    was 9 when he arrived in this country from Portugal. He cited the
    right to vote as one of his primary reasons for becoming a citizen.
    His wife, Palmira, also became a citizen.

    Leite said he wanted insurance against deportation. Though he has
    never been in any trouble with the law, "You never know what could
    happen."

    Sebastiana Gaboriault, 61, was the only person from Belize to take
    the oath yesterday.

    Gaboriault said she came to the United States "because I wanted to
    get a better life." She raised two children here before meeting her
    husband by answering his wife-wanted ad in the Yankee Swapper.

    ("I said, 'I'm trying to find a man who will take care of me,' " she
    said. She also pointed out that she is just "a one-man woman." It
    worked.)

    As for becoming a citizen, "I feel like, happy in my heart," she
    said.

    Albert Gaboriault had plans for the miniature American flag that his
    wife and the other participants received.

    "We'll put the flag on the car, on the antenna," he said. "I feel
    happy for her. I'm proud of her. . . . I'll probably take her out to
    dinner."
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