Citizenship ceremony sets record in St. Louis

Published Saturday, September 20, 2008

ST. LOUIS (AP) - They had learned English, mastered American civics, undergone extensive background checks and adapted to a new culture.

But the 1,000 new U.S. citizens disregarded instructions to file into orderly lines for their freshly printed citizenship certificates after the largest naturalization ceremony in St. Louis history yesterday.

The years-long anticipation of this day simply had been too great to wait any longer.

Smiling broadly and waving small American flags, the new Americans from more than 100 countries swamped tables at Saint Louis University’s Chaifetz Arena to claim the piece of paper certifying their new status.

The new Americans include former St. Louis Blues player and now radio sportscaster Kelly Chase, 40, from Canada and Ivonne Artica, a 32-year-old German nanny-turned-technical-trainer-and-analyst who can’t wait to vote in November’s general election.

B.J. Malek, 52, of Jordan, said he was so excited, "I feel like it’s my birthday today."

The suburban St. Louis gas station owner, whose native language is Arabic, said his struggles to learn English kept him from passing the citizenship test the first time, but he persevered.

The volume of people who checked in for the ceremony was so large that it took immigration staffers from St. Louis, Kansas City and Des Moines to process them, said Marilu Cabrera, spokeswoman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The majority were from India (16 percent), Bosnia (15 percent) and China (7 percent).

The reasons they sought U.S. citizenship run the gamut, from seeking to work or marry here, to fleeing war, violence or persecution in their home country.

None who were naturalized yesterday is among the 38 Muslim plaintiffs in Missouri who sued the federal government in June in hopes of expediting name checks.

The class-action lawsuit, filed in federal court in St. Louis, alleged that many internationals who have met the requirements to become U.S. citizens are left in limbo for months or years due to slow processing of FBI name checks.

The lawsuit contended that the delays violate time limits set by law aimed at reducing naturalization backlogs.

St. Louis attorney Jim Hacking said six of those clients since have been naturalized. He said the lawsuit made the government finish everyone’s name check, but they still don’t have their paperwork.

Hacking’s wife, Amany Ragab Hacking, an attorney and professor at Saint Louis University, told the new citizens of her own family’s struggles relocating from Egypt to the United States in the 1970s.

Nedim Ramic, a 26-year-old who came to St. Louis in 1999 as a Bosnian refugee, said he’s feeling "overwhelmed with all these great things coming together at the same time."

He graduated from Saint Louis University’s School of Law in May, passed the Missouri bar exam on Tuesday, passed his citizenship interview on Wednesday, and became a citizen yesterday.

Because it is Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, he said he would celebrate quietly with a few friends last night. But when the fasting ends Sept. 30, he said, "we’ll have a big celebration, a big party at my house."