“I don’t know what took me so long,” said Fernando Carreiro, a Boston resident, as he held a small American flag, still clutching his old Resident Alien Card in his other hand.
Once a witness to his natural-born children passing easily through airport security while he waited steps behind as his immigration forms were inspected, he can now enjoy the same convenience they did.
After living 27 years in the United States, Carreiro and 394 applicants for naturalization, hailing from countries including Canada, Ethiopia and Iraq, were granted U.S. citizenship during a ceremony yesterday afternoon at Faneuil Hall.
Carreiro and his family originally lived in Dorchester, but following four burglaries in four months, they moved to a Portuguese neighborhood in Cambridge, where he said he entered a bilingual program and learned English in a year.
He said his family’s move was a “tough experience at first, not knowing one word of English.”
Today, Carreiro runs his own construction business and lives in Arlington with his wife and two children – all U.S. citizens.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Supervisory Adjudications Officer Tony Violanti managed the naturalization ceremony, which granted the men and women “one of our nation’s highest honors: United States citizenship.”
“This is a nation of immigrants, which makes us stronger,” Violanti said. “People bring their own ideas and meld that into the United States.”
Violanti urged the country’s newest citizens to incorporate their heritage into American culture as much as they possibly could.
“We encourage you to keep your roots,” he said. “English is a language you must learn, but don’t lose your roots.”
After pledging to “renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity” to any countries of which they were previously citizens, the applicants surrendered their green cards in exchange for a certificate of naturalization.
The Boston-area U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services receives more than 100,000 applications and naturalizes roughly 50,000 immigrants each year, Violanti said. He added the application process usually takes about six months.
Presiding Federal Judge Judith Dein, who said her grandparents emigrated from Russia and Poland, applauded both the achievement of the new citizens and the importance of diversity.
“We are all much richer for knowing, living and working with people from other countries,” Dein said.
“It is a wonderful and difficult time to be a citizen,” she continued. “Hopefully, through debate and discussion, we’ll have [immigration] laws that are fair to everyone.”
Dein urged the crowd to fulfill their civic responsibilities by voting in elections. He also advised them to speak with representatives about immigration policies in hopes that they can help resolve the ongoing struggle between undocumented aliens and the U.S. naturalization system.
“Our diversity is America’s strength, not its weakness,” she said.