New Citizens Joining We, the People
On January 14 I had the distinct honor to give the keynote address for the Naturalization Ceremony at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Here is my speech:
Remarks to Our New American Citizens
Naturalization Ceremony at U.S. District Court for D.C.
January 14, 2025
President Patricia McGuire
Trinity Washington University
Your honor, Judge Paul Friedman, thank you for inviting me today. It is a distinct honor for me to welcome and celebrate with all of you, our newest American citizens. You are a remarkable group! 122 new citizens representing 50 different nations from all corners of the globe. The largest nation represented here is Ethiopia, followed closely by El Salvador. We are thrilled to welcome all of you and to congratulate you on your achievement of U.S. citizenship.
Seeing such glorious diversity in this room today reminds me of something President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said: “We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions-bound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality.”
What a momentous time this is in your lives, and also a remarkable moment in the life of the United States!
For you, achieving citizenship represents many years of hard work as you set on the long and often arduous pathway to today. You have your stories of how you came to this day: the journeys across oceans or rivers or through dusty deserts. The struggles to learn English, to assimilate, to deal with the prejudices of people who often forgot that they, too, are part of the immigrant story — maybe second or third generation in this country, but nonetheless, part of the great American immigrant story. You confronted discrimination, fear, hardship, convoluted legal requirements and educational challenges — and you are now great American success stories!
You have your own reasons for choosing U.S. citizenship: perhaps your desire to vote in all elections, to work in the federal government, to be free from the terrible suspicion and barriers that too often go with being an immigrant. You want your children to be citizens, you desire equality with your neighbors and friends, you want all of the rights and privileges of life in these United States without limits. You want to be out of the shadows forever. You want to pursue your version of The American Dream robustly.
This is a remarkable time for you to become citizens of the United States — and by “remarkable” I don’t mean to imply that it’s all perfect. In fact, some of what makes this a remarkable time for new citizens is exactly because it’s a difficult time for all citizens.
In these United States today, we stand at a crossroads between old assumptions and new realities. In a stark way, this moment is bracketed by last week’s elegant farewell to the late President Jimmy Carter and next week’s inauguration of President Donald Trump. In so many ways, President Carter represented the old assumptions — the absolute decorum he upheld as president and in his post-presidency; his rock solid commitments to helping all people and ensuring equality of opportunity; his promotion of record numbers of women, Black and Hispanic persons in government positions; his desire to improve education by establishing the U.S. Department of Education; his support for expansion of environmental protection; his advancement of human rights, civil rights, and peacebuilding in the Middle East; his success in giving Panama sovereignty over the Panama Canal; his strong faith and moral center that guided his personal as well as professional life.
Next week, on January 20, we will inaugurate a president who embodies the new realities. For his second term, President Trump vows that he will, among other things, engage in mass deportation of tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants; regain U.S. control of the Panama Canal even with military force if need be; abolish the Department of Education and end initiatives to promote equal opportunity through diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Now, in your new lives as American citizens, you may agree or disagree with any or all of those actions by President Carter and President Trump, that is your right and you should exercise it freely. You have a right to learn, to study, to express your opinions on the actions and policies of our public leaders at all levels — without any fear or intimidation — that is what active citizenship is all about,
In this moment of new realities that feel so different from the past, we need the voices of all citizens more than ever, and we need your engagement as new citizens in the urgent issues of this era of American life.
In the Oath of Allegiance that you are about to take, you will declare your intention to live by that oath to “… support and defend the Constitution and the Laws of the United States of America, against all enemies, foreign and domestic…” and that you will “…bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”
What does it mean for you to support and defend the Constitution of the United States? While that question could consume an entire encyclopedia, I will note just three simple points for today:
First, that you always remember that the first three words of the Constitution are “We, the People” — indeed, the most meaningful and powerful words in all of American law. We, the People, govern ourselves, make the laws through the elected representatives that we choose, and uphold the legal protections of the Constitution to “ensure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity….” We, the People. Not the president, not the Congress, not the Supreme Court. We, the People.
Second, that We the People expect the elected and appointed officials of government to respect, uphold and enforce all of the rights and privileges contained in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and laws enacted within that framework. We expect our elected officials to respect the separation of powers, to work with the balance of powers, with no one governmental official ignoring or running roughshod over the other branches. This balance protects the rights of the citizens from arbitrary and capricious power grabs by one branch or the other.
Third, that We the People have a right to expect our public leaders to protect the fundamental rights of all people enumerated in the Constitution — freedom of speech and press, freedom of religion, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, the right to fair and speedy trials, the important protections of the 14th Amendment for equal protection and due process, and the right of citizenship for persons born in the United States. We the People must not hesitate to protect our rights by insisting that our leaders respect and defend our rights, and we must resist any and all official efforts to water-down or abolish these hard-won rights.
I like the reminder that President Barack Obama once said, “Our Constitution is a remarkable, beautiful gift. But it’s really just a piece of parchment. It has no power on its own. We, the people, give it power. We, the people, give it meaning—with our participation, and with the choices that we make and the alliances that we forge.”
As we move into the most meaningful part of this ceremony today — the moment when you take the oath and become official citizens — I leave you with my fondest best hopes for all of you:
May your American Dream never disappoint you, but always be a source of joy, hope and high aspiration throughout your lives. May you join with We the People — your brother and sister American citizens — from this day forward, in pursuit of our most ardent desire to achieve that “more perfect union” of our dreams.
May the rights and privileges you will enjoy as American citizens empower you to be citizen leaders in you communities and places of work, becoming advocates and activists for the critical issues of your lives; may you always be able to raise your voices with pride and conviction, as full participants in the glory of our democracy.
May you pass on your heritage of love, loyalty and fidelity to the United States to your children and grandchildren and succeeding generations so that they can carry forward our most precious work together in strengthening our democracy, enlarging justice, ensuring “the blessings of liberty” in peace and freedom for this nation as a beacon of hope for the world.
Congratulations!
