These 99 Valley residents ended 2022 with a big milestone: U.S. citizenship
.JPG "Elizabeth Mazo Arenas who lives in Visalia and is originally from Medellin, Colombia was one of the 99 valley residents from 23 countries who took Oath of Allegiance during a special public naturalization ceremony on Dec. 30 at the Fresno Fairgrounds during the Hmong Cultural New Year Festival.")
Almost 100 Central Valley residents ended 2022 with a major big milestone: Obtaining U.S. citizenship.
They rang in the New Year as naturalized citizens.
“It’s something that can’t be explained. It’s exciting to be waiting for this moment. I feel privileged,” said Araceli Santana.
The 48-year-old Fresno resident was only 15 years old when she migrated to the United States from Cuernavaca, Morelos, México.
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The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services welcomed the newest U.S. citizens from 23 countries – including Chile (1), Colombia (2), Guatemala (1), India (18), Laos (5), México (33), and Philippines (16) – at a Dec. 30 public ceremony at the Fresno Fairgrounds during the Hmong Cultural New Year Festival.
This is the first time the local immigration office has held a naturalization ceremony during the Hmong Cultural New Year’s Festival.
“Exciting, really happy to be able to naturalize 99 applicants from 23 different countries,” said Carmen Paniagua, acting USCIS Fresno Field Office director. “We’re very, very excited. It’s taking a lot of work, but we have a lot of volunteers from the community, from the Fresno Center cooperating in what we are doing.”
“We are very happy to celebrate not only the new U.S citizens but also to celebrate it with the community, and with the Hmong community in particular, it represents so much to us here in Fresno,” Paniagua said.
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“I think it would be the last set of U.S. citizens for this year (2022) for us,” said Paniagua, who administered the Oath of Allegiance.
About 400 family members and friends witnessed the ceremony, making it the first large-scale naturalization ceremony since the COVID-19 pandemic paused big ceremonies in Fresno.
Among those waiting to celebrate with their loved ones was Axel Randolfo Aviles Bonilla’s family, whose wife took photos as he walked out of the fairground agriculture building as a new citizen.
“One more dream achieved thanks to God,” said Aviles Bonilla, who is originally from Guatemala and lives in Merced. “Bringing my family, the support of my wife, I feel very happy and happy to make a dream come true.”
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The last large-scale naturalization ceremony held by the immigration office in Fresno was on March 10, 2020, when 543 Central Valley residents from 37 countries became citizens at the Fresno Convention Center Valdez Hall. Families and friends attended those ceremonies.
“Right now, we’re still in transition. We are the medium right now with COVID, so we don’t plan on having the large ceremonies with that until, you know, we are able to handle them. We want to mitigate all the issues that can come with having high COVID,” Paniagua said. “I don’t anticipate the huge ceremonies like before. Hopefully we will one day as things get better. That’s our hope.”
The Fresno Field office continues to conduct same-day daily naturalization ceremonies as well as a few monthly routine ceremonies. The office still conducts ceremonies outside in the community like the one at the fairgrounds or the children’s naturalization ceremonies at local libraries.
Currently, the Fresno office is doing approximately six routine swearing-in ceremonies a month – twice a month/three times a day – where approximately 120 applicants are scheduled each time but are sworn in in groups of 40 inside the building to maintain COVID-19 safety protocols.
“But in the meantime, we are still involved in the community in this type of celebrations with us and to have USCIS presence in the Community as well, so one way or another, we’re still naturalizing people, so we’re very happy to be here,” Paniagua said.
The Fresno Field Office naturalized 14,138 applicants in 2022, Paniagua said.
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“I am proud to have achieved this because not everyone can have this privilege. I am very grateful to God,” said Matiana Garcia de Luján who lives in Ceres and is originally from México.
“Happy, Happy, even tears come to my eyes,” said Elizabeth Mazo Arenas who lives in Visalia and is originally from Medellín, Colombia.
Paniagua encourages people who are permanent resident of the United States to apply for citizenship if they have been a resident for three or five years, depending on how they became a resident.
“It has many benefits that people can get, not just from having a U.S. passport but also being able to vote, being able to serve on a jury, being able to travel freely in most countries, being able to petition for their family and many family members,” Paniagua said.
“It has a lot of benefits in addition to being able to have a lot of government and for retirement, for many of them as well. So, I just encourage everybody who’s able to study English or to, you know, get the exemption and become a United States citizen,” Paniagua said.
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She said that at the Fresno office it takes about five to six months from the time an applicant submits their application to get interviewed and becoming a naturalized citizen the same day.
“That’s about normal right now,” Paniagua said of the process in Fresno, clarifying that not all offices have that time frame and that the daily and regular ceremonies help makes the process quicker. “Smaller celebrations, you know, a few a day really add up in the month.”
New citizen Marco Antonio Álvarez felt very lucky that his application was processed faster than he expected.
“I got quite lucky. It was fast and I’m going to celebrate double too. Thank God. And like I told you everything was fast,” said the 59-year-old Álvarez who is originally from Michoacán, México and lives in Bakersfield.
Álvarez said that what motivated him to become a citizen was that his permanent resident card was going to expire, and he decided it was better to pay for the citizenship application.
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Paniagua said USCIS had a big push in 2021 to naturalize a lot of people with a million people nationwide being naturalized during the 2021-22 fiscal year.
