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10/4/2008

Almost 900 become U.S. citizens at Rice Stadium
Emergency naturalization ceremony allows November vote

BY JADE BOYD
Rice News staff

Almost 900 immigrants became U.S. citizens Saturday in an emergency naturalization ceremony at Rice Stadium that took place in the wake of Hurricane Ike. The ceremony, which was arranged on short notice after Ike forced the cancellation of an earlier event at another venue, allowed the immigrants to take their oath in time to register to vote in November's presidential election.

		Almost 900 immigrants became U.S. citizens Saturday in an emergency naturalization ceremony at Rice Stadium that took place in the wake of Hurricane Ike. GREG MARSHALL

Rice officials worked with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the League of Women Voters to organize the ceremony.

"To become a citizen you had to learn the Constitution," U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes said after swearing in the crowd. "To be a citizen you have to live it."

Hughes urged the 881 new citizens to take a hand in the management of their country by voting, and indeed, the League of Women Voters reported that more than 99 percent of the new citizens registered before leaving the stadium.

"I feel so excited that I am going to participate in the decision-making and choosing of the next American president," said Army Pfc. Jerome Iyeke, who drove three hours from Fort Polk, La., to take his oath. Iyeke, a native Nigerian who is training for service in Iraq, said he decided to come to the U.S. and join the Army shortly after hearing about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

Holding the ceremony on Saturday preserved the opportunity for Iyeke and the other new citizens to participate in November's election because voters were required to register by Oct. 6.

Maria Espildora, a new citizen who came to the U.S. from Spain three years ago, said, "When I got the call last night I was amazed. I couldn't believe they had found another place so soon."

GREG MARSHALL
Rice Facilities employees Alfonso and Ana Isabel Perez are shown moments before she became an American citizen at Saturday's ceremony.

The ceremony was arranged in just two days after Hughes asked Associate Dean of Engineering Gary Marfin whether Rice could help. Within hours, Rice officials had arranged for the stadium, parking, security and other needs.

USCIS immediately began calling every candidate and doing the necessary paperwork. USCIS spokeswoman Maria Elena Garcia-Upson said many personnel in the agency's Houston office arrived at 5:30 a.m. Friday and worked until 11 p.m., calling candidates and creating certificates for each of the more than 1,200 immigrants who were eligible to participate.

Before administering the oath of citizenship to the crowd, Hughes told them Saturday's ceremony would not have been possible without Rice's help.

"We made a commitment, in the wake of Hurricane Ike, to make a substantial contribution to Houston's recovery from the storm, and I can't think of a better way to do that than to make sure that these people are able to earn their citizenship in time to vote in the November elections," said Linda Thrane, Rice's vice president for Public Affairs. "Everyone pitched in -- Rice Police; Facilities, Engineering and Planning; the President's Office; Athletics; Public Affairs – to make the dream of U.S. citizenship come true for these folks."

This was not Hughes' first contact with Rice. Among other activities, he has endowed the James Baker Hughes Lecture Fund, the purpose of which is to provide occasional lectures about the relationships between engineering and the arts and humanities.