1
Ladies and gentlemen,
the Honorable JusticeGinsburg.
"I hereby declare, on oath..."
I hereby declare, on oath.
"...I will support
and defend the Constitution..."
I will support
and defend the Constitution.
"...against all enemies..."
Against all enemies.
"...foreign and domestic."
Foreign and domestic.
"That I will bear arms..."
That I will bear arms.
"...on behalf of the United States..."
On behalf of the United States.
"...when required by law."
When required by law.
After the words,
"We the people of the United States,"
the Constitution sets out the aspiration
to form a more perfect union.
We abolished slavery,
prohibited racial discrimination,
and made men and women
people of equal citizenship stature...
making ever more vibrant
our national motto...
E pluribus unum,
"Out of Many, One."
All right, everybody, uh,
good morning.
Good morning.
Nice to see you all.
My name is Samantha Rijkers,
and I am originally from the Netherlands.
When I started this job,
I just felt so excited
that I could help fellow immigrants
also become citizens.
Since we are going
to be spending a lot of time together,
I always think it's nice for all of us
to get to know each other a little bit.
All right.
-Who's ready to go first?
My name is Dipna,
I'm from Mexico,
-like my blouse.
I came here since 1989, so do the math.
I want to apply for a citizenship
because we came for better opportunities,
for freedom.
Things are changing,
something can happen
with only the residence.
We have to become a citizens,
that's why.
I came here to United States in 2012.
I was granted political asylum
because I was suffering persecution
from the Venezuelan government.
And I would like to become citizen.
For two reasons.
First of all,
because I think, uh...
this is the way to say thank you...
to this wonderful country.
And second,
because I love democracy and liberty.
I'm from Colombia.
I've been here about 21 years.
I come because I fell in love with him,
my husband.
And, you know,
it's time to be a citizen,
because we love this country
and we are scared about the future.
We want to be a part of the citizen,
so the next time we can vote.
We can have the rights.
We can have the voice.
We can count.
I want to become US citizen
because I much appreciate freedom.
There is no freedom in China,
and people are also suffering there.
If you say something,
you will suffer some persecutions.
Here, we can spread the freedom
to-- to-- to other place.
That's why I want to become
American citizen here.
-Yeah, that's why.
-Thank you.
Follow me.
We're going to our first painting.
What did you notice?
If you want to pass the citizenship test,
immigrants have to study 100 questions
about American history and government,
and they will be asked
up to ten of those.
They have to answer six correctly to pass.
Native Americans,
soldiers...
There's soldiers also in the back.
Those questions are about history, civics.
They haveto understand
how the US government works.
And for people
who did not grow up in this country,
who did not go to school in this country,
that is very challenging.
Who are the different people
in this painting?
And the other group...
How can we study history
using paintings and artifacts?
What do you see in this painting?
It's winter.
-How do you know it's winter?
-It's snowy.
And there's guns.
Guns. What else?
-Families, children, babies.
-Yeah.
They're guiding them to somewhere.
-They're going somewhere.
-Church.
How do you know they're going to church?
-Well, because of the pastors.
-The priest.
What is the family carrying?
-Books.
-Books.
-Probably Bibles.
-Bibles.
-Yes.
-They're looking for something.
Yeah. What--
What could they be looking for?
Like, for a place?
Mm-hmm. Somewhere to go?
Maybe they're taking them
to a place of safety.
Maybe it's unsafe.
What could be the danger?
Maybe they're coming back from...
participating in some sort of religious...
-Event.
-...event, yeah.
So,
it is dangerous for them to go.
So if they're going to church
and it is dangerous,
what does that tell us about these people?
They're not able
to freely demonstrate their religion.
Mm-hmm.
This painting is called
Pilgrims Going to Church.
And they came here forfreedom.
But specifically, freedom of religion.
All right?
And that's what we can see here.
What kind of question do they ask,
you know, in the 100 questions
that will be related to this painting?
What is one reason
colonists came to America?
-Religion.
-Freedom, religion...
Okay.
Already know one of the 100 questions.
Right? We're good to go.
This is a time of great insecurity
for many immigrants in our nation.
Even for lawful permanent residents
like many of you.
Can you tell me how is it
that you got your green card?
Did they do that in the office,
or did you have to go to the court?
Court, ma'am, in the court.
One of the things that's great
about becoming a US citizen
is that it gives you
a certain amount offreedom.
Once you become a citizen,
they can't take it away from you.
Having citizenship is important
because of all the insecurity
we're going through at the moment.
Can you read, write,
and speak basic English?
-Yeah, I can write, I can read.
-Very good.
An immigrant is someone
who comes to contribute to the country.
Have you ever been ordered, removed,
excluded or deported
from the United States?
The immigration
situation is getting harder.
And the stuff we are being told
is starting to scare us.
Have you ever had any kind
of military or weapons training?
Oh, my goodness.
When I was able
to file the papers for my residency,
my children were very happy,
because it assured us
that we would be able to stick together.
Are you willing to bear arms
on behalf of the United States?
Yes.
All immigrants are
in pursuit of happiness.
If law requires it,
are you willing to perform...
I think
my greatest happiness is
that I could come to America
and become an American citizen.
Look at the painting.
What did you notice?
People getting hurt...
Yeah, they tried
to, like, take down the horse...
It's a horse.
What else can you tell about the statue?
The king. Right?
-How do you know it's a king?
-The crown.
The crown, right?
Yeah, it's King George III of England.
So, on July 9th of 1776,
the Declaration of Independence
reached New York City.
It took five days for news
to travel from Philadelphia,
where it was written, to New York.
They got so excited,
a small group
of George Washington's soldiers
ran down to the statue of King George III.
When they got to the statue,
they started pulling it down.
If you look up, you can see
that's the real statue's horse's tail
that survived.
-Oh!
-It's right up there.
So, let's bring it back to the test.
When was the Declaration
of Independence adopted?
-July.
-July 4th.
It's July 4th, but it took until July 9th
for people in New York City
to find out about it.
So the answer is July 4th, 1776.
This is what it would have sounded like
if you were at the Common
on July 9th, 1776.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty
and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Human beings
are not willing to live
in a locked-up space.
They aspire to live in a free terrain.
They aspire to have, for example,
the right to religion,
the right to expression,
the right to freedom.
And the right to live
in an unrestrained environment.
A poem goes like this,
Life is dear, love is dearer.
Both can be given up for freedom.
Freedom is a persons highest pursuit.
I had a tourist visa.
At that time, they didnt bother me.
Id come, stay with my sister for a while.
At the time,
getting a visa was a possibility,
so Id come over.
In 2001, after the Twin Towers incident,
that all stopped.
They became stricter
with immigration laws.
So I thought,
"Im not going back anymore."
I didnt know
how hard it was to emigrate.
Because its not just about moving.
Its a different language and culture,
lots of things to learn.
We went to the lawyers office.
That case cost ussome 30,000 dollars,
because they announced in the news
that the immigration fees were going up.
They took advantage of us.
And to make matters worse,
its founder went to prison
and everything went backwards.
So we had to start all over and pay fees
to yet another attorney to be represented,
new fees to file the paperwork.
It was a slow and difficult process
to get our papers.
You come here, you get settled,
you learn to love this country,
you get used to it,
you put down roots here, have a son.
Its been many years.
Weve been here for 30 years.
Its been a whole life.
Half of our lives here.
To become a citizen, you need...
to love this country, and we do.
Were Colombians,
but we feel like were from here.
Half of our life is here.
Weve contributed
and weve done things
how they should be done.
-Good morning.
-Good morning!
Hello!
Did you study at home?
No practicing?
Uh-uh. Nothing.
We're gonna play a game.
So I want you to think,
kind of talk through a timeline.
How is the United States changing,
looking at this map?
So, what area becomes part
of the United States first,
and then what next?
I'll give you a few minutes
to talk about this in your groups.
So, originally, this was the first states.
And that was part of the United States,
but not yet states.
What about Texas, it was, um, independent?
It used to be part of Mexico,
and then it was independent,
-exactly. Yeah.
-Okay.
Mexico was this big,
and now it's like this.
All of California was Mexico.
All of this was Mexico.
-Why did you let them take it?
-It was a Mexican president.
-He sold it or what?
-Yes.
How much did he take from that sale?
Louisiana is so big.
The original are just these ones, 13.
The original, it is too small, right?
-Yes, it's small.
-Where's New York?
I also can't reach. It's over there.
Where's the Mississippi River?
The different areas became part
of the United States at different times.
Louisiana Purchase, that doubled
the size of the United States.
But eventually,
Native Americans were forcibly removed
from their lands.
After Florida, what became part
of the United States next?
-Texas.
-Texas. Yeah.
What becomes part
of the United States next?
-Oregon.
-Oregon Country.
Yeah, now it's now Califor--
The state of California, part of it.
I was always very impressed
with the tenacity
of those first immigrants.
How they had to struggle
to establish themselves here.
I am Venezuelan in origin.
I began to work as a typist.
I went from secretary
to section manager, to department manager,
to division manager,
to line manager,
to general section director,
until I reached the position
of bank president
and, subsequently,
Minister of Agriculture.
Everything changed when a tyrant
ruined the economy of the country.
Venezuelans had never been immigrants,
never.
Venezuelans would go on vacations,
and we would return to Venezuela,
selling our leftover US dollars.
Now, there are more
than four million Venezuelans
outside of their country.
Families destroyed, families separated.
That is Venezuela.
So I decided to write a book
about the political, social, economic,
and moral situation
in Venezuela.
We wont be puppets
managed by President Hugo Chvez.
That was the tipping point,
because the police came after me.
And it was a truly terrible moment,
because I knew they were criminals,
and if I said or did anything,
it could have deadly consequences for me.
I entered on a tourist visa.
I could come and go.
But after 9/11,
they changed the visa system,
and that visa no longer functioned.
So I no longer had the possibility
of changing that visa
because I no longer had anything
in Mexico.
So thats when I decided
to no longer leave this country.
Yes.
Okay, whats the address?
Until finally, my son, when he turned 21,
he petitioned...
for my residency.
Sometimes I have felt frustrated
by some peoples attitudes.
Recently, someone told us
to stop speaking Spanish.
They said we shouldnt speak Spanish
on the bus,
that we should speak English.
Its a very difficult experience.
You have to be really strong.
You learn how to leave
your loneliness aside
and push yourself
to try to get ahead for my sons.
What do you see here?
-Slave auction.
-One woman...
Donna,
you said right away slave auction.
How do we know that is what's happening?
-Public auction.
-It says "sales."
-"Great sale."
-"Great Sale."
"Great sale of horses,
cattle, Negroes and other farm stock
this day at public auction."
What else? What is he wearing?
-Just casual kind of clothes.
-Mm-hmm.
-What kind of shoes is he wearing?
-No shoes.
But the woman also
doesn't wear shoes.
What about the woman?
Have we come to a consensus?
Have we agreed
on what her role is in all this?
She looks worried,
because probably she's thinking
that the boys
are going to be taken from her.
Yeah, that was a very, um...
-Worry.
-...real possibility
for many families,
that they would be taken apart.
That some family members
would be sold to one person
and others to another,
and they would be separated. Mm-hmm.
The slaves they brought over
were essential in building the foundation
of this country.
Sometimes, I think of everything
theyve gone through.
Lots of suffering.
This is a multicolored country.
They came as slaves, but that contributed
to the melting pot
that this beautiful country is.
So through art, John Rodgers showed...
Well, he was political through his art,
showing how horrible slavery was.
That families were being torn apart
and that people were being treated
like animals. Right?
They literally say
they are like other animals.
A major issue that led to the Civil War
was slavery, as we can see here.
Name one problem
that led to the Civil War.
Slavery.
Who lived in America
before the Europeans arrived?
Native Americans.
What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
Free the slaves.
So, thank you all for coming.
See you next week.
-Have a great week.
-You too.
-Thank you.
-Mm-hmm.
This is the First Lady
of the Republic,
this is the wife of the President
of Congress, and this is me.
This is a small part
of the materials I presented
when I applied for asylum.
And this is the book
that almost got me hanged.
Fanny Bello writes a book.
It is a letter to President Chvez.
It's called Letter to a Falling Chvez.
I was permanently fighting
against the government of Chvez.
Whats the message you want to send
to the president, if he reads your book?
I hope he reconsiders.
Specifically, in one chapter, I tell him
that he should pray the "Confiteor"
with conviction.
If we dont react to this mess,
we will end up being a franchise,
and the owner will be Hugo Chvez.
They arrived in the morning
with guns in their hands,
and soon the gun was at my head.
They broke my computer,
threw me to the ground, tied me up,
and killed my dog.
They said they were doing this
to stop me from publishing propaganda.
And after that, well,
I had to leave the country.
I was afraid
that they were going to put me in prison,
because the book hit them hard.
I came through the Colombian border,
I flew to Bogota, and from there to here.
THE AGRICULTURAL LIE
Chvez ruined the economy of the country.
In Venezuela,
people are actually dying of hunger.
Who are we?
Venezuela!
Long live Venezuela!
I am fighting now, and I will fight
when I become a citizen.
Fighting to set Venezuela free
from the present tyranny.
-Who are we?
-Venezuela!
-What do we want?
-Freedom!
I want to look at another image,
so if you take one and pass.
And some here...
Yeah, if you help those
to the back as well.
-They're doing a Chinese wall.
-Yeah.
Look at all their faces.
Anti-low wages.
So,
I heard a lot of great reactions to this.
Yeah. All right, so, again, so...
What are the people doing in this--
in this image?
-Building a wall.
-Building a wall?
Anti-Chinese wall.
What does that mean,
if they're building an anti-Chinese wall?
-They don't like the Chinese.
-Mm-hmm.
They don't want them to come in.
Who are the people building this wall?
The other immigrants.
Other immigrants!
-Immigrants.
-Other immigrants.
That's the same as today.
How is it similar today?
They're gonna build, like, a-- a wall.
Mexico. From Mexico.
And they talk about all those things
from the people.
-The same thing.
-Mm-hmm.
They want the best of the, uh,
each country,
but they don't want the people,
just the products from it.
They just want the product, yeah.
They benefit.
They benefit from them.
-History repeats.
-Yeah.
When you talk
about asbestos, people panic.
There always has to be someone who does
the work that they dont want to do.
That was one of the eligible jobs
to get the papers.
My boss told me, "Okay,
we have to go and clean the Twin Towers."
I hadn't really grasped what had happened.
The scope of what had happened.
When I got there, wow.
He worked there for one year.
I worked for about three months there.
We dont know what can happen
to us in the future.
I got asthma after that.
I wasnt asthmatic before,
and now I have it.
We didnt know how bad this was.
We couldnt imagine what was in the air.
We were caught up...
in having work
and being useful.
In a few years,
we can end up sick from that.
We can die,
and isnt that dying for this country?
To help with that tragedy?
We think that weve earned
the rightto become citizens.
-Right?
-Yes.
Say "unemployed"
and fill out your address.
Have you ever been involved
with any of the following:
genocide,
torture, killing,
badly hurting a person on purpose...
Have you ever been arrested,
charged with a crime,
-handcuffed by a police officer?
-No. No.
No. Got it, all right.
Were you ever a member of,
or did you ever serve in
or help, or participate in-- in any way
in any kind of military group?
We'll see if you need any of that.
If you traveled a lot
or had a lot of jobs,
-so we'll check on that.
-Can I have those papers?
Thanks.
We are very afraid
that the person who is leading us now
could lead us to something terrible.
Despite whats happening now,
I think there are many good people
who want change.
They say thatit's always darkest
before the dawn.
It's really powerful to see
why people are coming to this country
and why they want to be
a part of this country.
I think the United States government
decided to include questions
about slavery, about the Civil War,
because that is American history,
and if you don't understand the past
and you want to become
a part of this country,
you don't understand the present.
Um, so...
what did Martin Luther King Jr. do?
-Fight for Civil Rights.
-Fought for Civil Rights.
We can also say that he worked
for equality for all American people.
Yeah.
I'm going to show you a video
of a part of a speech that he gave.
How long will it take?
Somebodys asking,
"How long will prejudice blind
the visions of men?"
How long? Not long.
Because the arc
of the moral universe is long,
but it bends toward justice.
-How long? Not long!
-Not long.
Everyone has a right to life, liberty,
-religion...
-To vote.
There wasnt justice at that time.
To have someone else oppress you
-is not right.
-Forcefully, right?
As humans,
we are never perfect.
We have our shortcomings.
America has its shortcomings.
However...
Americas political system,
belief system...
are trying to overcome these shortcomings.
Its political system
is moving towards the right direction.
For things to move forward
and get better,
someone has to suffer.
At that time,
theyre the ones who suffered.
You understand
why he became such an important leader
of that movement,
because he was a great speaker.
This was such a long fight,
and there were so many things
we couldn't discuss today,
there were so many ways
in which African Americans
were fighting for equality
and still are today.
The final thing we have to do
is just cover some of the questions.
What movement tried
to end racial discrimination?
-Civil Rights.
-Civil Rights Movement.
So "civil" means "of the people."
Jian Zhang.
I came to the US in 1999
to do my doctoral study in physics.
And now, Ive been accepted
as a member of the society.
I feel that all my years
of admiring America's value system
have finally been valued.
All my yearsofyearning its value system
have been valued.
I am now part of the American society.
Behind me, you see the eagle,
the symbol
of the United States of America.
We are a beautiful and substantive
and powerful nation
because of what you have contributed
and because of what you will contribute.
Just what is this sacred liberty
that must lie
in the hearts of men and women?
The spirit of liberty is the spirit
which is not too sure it is right.
The spirit of liberty
is the spiritwhich seeks to understand
the minds of other men and women
without bias.
May the spirit of liberty be your beacon
as you play your part
in helping to achieve
a more perfect union.
This country has a history of struggle
for all of the rights
that are enjoyed now.
When youre a citizen,
you can vote,you can run for office.
This is a country of immigrants.
Who is not an immigrant in this country?
Albania, Algeria, Argentina,
Australia, Burkina Faso,
Canada, China, Denmark,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
El Salvador, Georgia.
We're all from somewhere else.
We are a nation made strong
by people like you.
People who have traveled long distances
overcome great obstacles,
all to provide a better life
for themselves and their families.
Please, raise your right hand
and repeat after me.
-"I hereby declare..."
-I hereby declare.
-"...on oath..."
-On oath.
-"...that I absolutely..."
-That I absolutely.
-"...and entirely..."
-And entirely.
-"...renounce and abjure..."
-Renounce and abjure.
-"...all allegiance and fidelity..."
-All allegiance and fidelity.
"To any foreign prince..."
To any foreign prince.
-"...State, or sovereignty..."
-State, or sovereignty.
"And that I take
this obligation freely..."
And that I take this obligation freely.
-"So help me God."
-"So help me God."
Yay, we did it!