Citizenship by Choice

WOODBINE – At Woodbine Municipal Building May 2, a group of 19 newly-naturalized American citizens from 12 countries took their oath in a special session of the Superior Court presided over by Superior Court Assignment Judge Julio Mendez. 
Mendez was assisted by Superior Court Judges Susan Sheppard and Christine Smith who administered the oath to each new citizen.
The ceremony, the third in Cape May County, was hosted by the Atlantic Cape May Superior Court Vicinage along with the Cape May County and Atlantic County Bar associations, Cape May County, the Borough of Woodbine, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In their remarks, speakers highlighted that the day was very special to them because they were children or grandchildren of immigrants. Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky said, “My parents arrived in the U.S. from Ukraine in 1950 having been displaced from their home country as a result of World War II. In 1958, they became citizens, and I was born before they even became naturalized.
“Woodbine has always been a refuge and haven for many cultures, and you could say it was a ‘sanctuary city’ in its time. We celebrate, not just tolerate, diversity and celebrate the many contributions immigrants make to the U.S.”
Woodbine Council member Michael Benson, explained to the gathering that his family’s name was originally ‘Bensonyovich’ and he was the descendant of Baron de Hirsch who settled Woodbine as a place of safety for Russian Jews to escape the Czarist pogroms of the late 19th century.
According to U.S. government statistics, over the last decade, the U.S. welcomed more than 7.4 million naturalized citizens into the country.
In 2016, the most recent numbers available, the U.S. approved 752,800 people for naturalization.
The judges were joined by local officials as well as throngs of excited family members of the new citizens.
The international nature of the group was underscored by the languages heard during conversations, and the names announced as individual presentations were made of naturalization certificates – names from Bangladesh to Russia alphabetically with Belarus, Bulgaria, China, and multiple other countries represented in between.
All had traveled highly personal journeys to get to this momentous day: for one couple, the wife had literally hit the lottery by winning a highly-coveted visa number to allow both her and her husband to pursue U.S. citizenship. They now live in Cape May, working, he in construction and she as a pastry chef.
A Jamaican man had waited over 30 years before taking the necessary steps to complete his citizenship process.
Others had come as family members of U.S. citizens or had been invited to work here and were fortunate enough to then qualify for citizenship.
The ceremony was marked by a rendition of “Sueno” (“dream”) by law clerk Julieta Gomez de Mellow, whose lyrics reflected the sentiment that there are no country barriers or borders for happiness and peace. She concluded the ceremony by singing “God Bless America” joined by all participants.
New citizens:
Muntasir Kalam, Bangladesh
Vitali Mytnik, Belarus
Dimitar Milevski, Bulgaria
Chuanyang Gao, Shufan Jiang, China
Peter Batista Ramirez, Matthew Mendoza, Dominican Republic
Neville Gayle, Gregg Morais, Jamaica
Loreta Acevedo, Lithuania
Maria Nunez Ginez, Urvino Bruno Medel, Salvador Aguilera, Mayra Lopez Leon, Mexico
Ria Korina Lazaro, Philippines
Krzysztof Gruzewski, Poland
Marius Iorgulescu, Romania
Ilya Rodionov, Anna Rodionova, Russia
 
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.