A Week Before an Election Focused on Immigration, 74 New Yorkers Became U.S. Citizens on the UWS

By Claire Davenport

“Welcome home” was the refrain at an Upper West Side naturalization ceremony on Tuesday, where 74 people from 38 countries, including Albania, Ghana, Turkey, and Senegal, were sworn in as United States citizens.

The ceremony was hosted at the New York Historical – the new name of the UWS’s New-York Historical Society, which announced the change this week as part of celebrating its 220th anniversary.

Naturalization ceremonies tend to be emotional events, and the significance of this one – coming just one week before a presidential election where immigration policy has been a major theme – was not lost on the newly minted citizens.

“This is very emotional. I’m so proud to be an American citizen after 33 years of being in this country as a resident,” said Laura de Toledo. She and her husband emigrated from Argentina to the U.S. to study at Syracuse University; de Toledo later got a job teaching Spanish at a local private school.

Returning from a recent trip abroad, de Toledo and her husband tried to accompany their daughters – who are American citizens – in the airport immigration processing line for U.S. citizens. But they were told they were in the wrong line since they didn’t have American passports themselves. That’s when they decided it was time to finally apply for citizenship. De Toledo’s husband had his naturalization ceremony last Friday, October 25.

“Before, we were resident aliens. And now we’re not – we’re Americans, and we’re part of this,” she said.

The naturalization ceremony opened with a recording of the Star-Spangled Banner and closed with a video message from President Joe Biden, who told the group: “Today, you earned a new title equal to that of an American president – the title I’m most proud of – citizen of the United States of America.” Four of those who became citizens were singled out during the ceremony for their service in the U.S. military.

A gaggle of public officials and representatives of the museum were on hand to offer good wishes: Agnes Hsu-Tang, the museum’s board chair; its president and CEO Louise Mirrir; U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler; and UWS representatives in the New York State legislature Senator Brad Holyman-Sigal and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal.

“Seventy-four new citizens – that sounds really good,” said Tamika Gray, district director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for New York. Gray talked about her own experience coming to America from Jamaica at age six.

“It doesn’t matter where your journey started, it matters what you do with what has been given to you,” she said. “And you have an awesome opportunity ahead of you to make an impact, leave a legacy, and maybe write some history that we can put here in the New York Historical.”

One thing these citizens will not be able to do is vote in this November’s election. The deadline for voter registration in New York was October 26.

“We missed it by like three days,” said Ana Gutierrez-Folch, originally from Chile, who became a citizen on Tuesday. “Still, I’m going to register to vote and get my passport tomorrow,” she added. Gutierrez-Folch has lived in the U.S. for almost 20 years. Like de Toledo, she first came here for college.

“I was hoping to vote, but it’s too late,” said Andres Onate, who emigrated from Colombia to work in the U.S. at a religious nonprofit. Onate’s wife and their two children were in the back of the audience, smiling big as he received his citizenship documentation. “I’m definitely looking forward to next time, to vote,” he said.

Onate said the immigration process took him over five years. “The most difficult part was the waiting. Especially during COVID, it was tough,” he said. His advice to others going through America’s byzantine immigration process? “Be patient,” he said. “Each process for every person is different.”

For Gutierrez-Folch, the hardest part of the process was getting a green card, the status that grants permanent residency in the U.S. but not full citizenship rights. “It took a year and a half,” she said. “After that, everything was much easier.”

Among the steps for naturalization is a test on American history. “They have a range of 100 questions they can draw from during the interview, and I’m very nerdy, so I learned them all,” said Gutierrez-Folch. “I was prepared to tell them all about the Madison Papers.” Instead, she said, she was only asked to name the vice president and give the date when the U.S. Constitution was written. Gutierrez-Folch had no trouble answering either. For readers who, like this reporter, might need a history brush-up: the Constitution was written in 1787 and ratified the following year.

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