On the morning of January 28, 2010, over 1300 new immigrants from the Santa Clara County area gathered at the Heritage Theatre in Campbell, South Bay, to participate in a naturalization ceremony organized by the Immigration Bureau. This was the first U.S. citizenship oath ceremony held in South Bay this year.
According to data released by the Immigration Bureau, among the more than 1300 individuals sworn in that day, they came from a total of 68 countries and regions, with the largest group being of Indian descent, followed by those of Mexican and Filipino descent; the number of naturalized citizens from mainland China and Taiwan was just over fifty.
Sharon Rummery, a spokesperson for the San Francisco District of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, stated during an interview on-site that the main reasons for such a large number of new immigrants participating in the oath ceremony include: the immigration reform bill has been stalled in Congress, and many green card holders are applying for citizenship to secure their rights as citizens and to better apply for green cards for eligible family members; furthermore, immigration authorities have also expedited the review process for citizenship applications.
Due to the aforementioned factors, the number of people applying for citizenship nationwide has been increasing year by year since the "9/11" terrorist attacks, especially in recent years, the naturalization rate has surged dramatically, and the economic recession has not affected the enthusiasm for naturalization, a phenomenon unprecedented in U.S. immigration history. Statistics reveal that as of September 30, 2007, the total number of naturalizations nationwide reached as high as 660,000.
A woman of Chinese descent from Anhui, surnamed Liang, admitted that although she had long anticipated this day, participating in the citizenship oath ceremony made her feel a sense of solemnity and sanctity. When she raised her right hand to take the oath, her emotions were quite complex, and pledging allegiance to the United States has now become her duty as a citizen.
To encourage more newly naturalized citizens to register to vote, the Santa Clara County Elections Office specially dispatched bilingual staff who can speak Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Hindi to the site to inform the new citizens about the importance of voter registration. According to regulations, new citizens who participated in the oath ceremony that day would be eligible to vote in the two elections this year (mid-year and year-end).
Data from the Santa Clara County Elections Office last year indicated that as of early last year, the number of registered voters was over 794,000, meaning that among the county's population of 1.7 million, more than half of the residents have voting rights.
