Flanked by images of the founding fathers and Frederick Douglass in Boston’s Faneuil Hall on Friday, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and legal advocates blasted recent moves by immigration authorities to deny a group of immigrants the ability to become citizens in a building known as America’s “Cradle of Liberty.”
“It is the stuff of dictatorships, it is the stuff of authoritarianism, and we must fight it every single day,” Markey said. “The same fight began right here in Faneuil Hall, 250 years ago. The fight to protect the rights of everyone.”
GBH News broke the national story of several immigrants being denied the ability to proceed with their oath ceremonies last week at Faneuil Hall, a nearly 300-year-old building which was a center for debate during both the American Revolution and the Civil War. These immigrants, Markey said, “are representative of hundreds, potentially thousands, of others who are going to be denied the right to become naturalized citizens.”
The permanent residents — who had gone through extensive vetting — lined up inside Faneuil Hall on Dec. 4. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials approached several, asking what country they were originally from. Based on that answer, several were denied the ability to proceed with the final step in the process.
“Sit with that a minute: they were pulled out of their citizenship ceremony, because the President didn’t like where they were born,” said Carol Rose, the executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. “And it’s not just happening here in Boston, the cradle of liberty, but across the country.”
The policy move is playing out nationwide, as immigration officials have denied many permanent residents their oath ceremonies. “We are exploring all possible legal avenues to fight for justice for the individuals who were taken out of line at Faneuil Hall and denied their opportunity to participate in a naturalization ceremony,” said Brooke Simone, senior attorney for Lawyers for Civil Rights, in an interview with GBH News.
Markey said his office was aware of four individuals who were denied citizenship, while advocacy organizations have mentioned at least seven. It is unclear if there is overlap.
GBH News reported on a Haitian woman in her 50s with a green card who was turned away at the ceremony last week; she declined to speak publicly through an advocate.
To become a U.S. citizen, immigrants must first acquire a green card, which has many steps on its own. After that, there are extensive interviews, background checks, classes, and citizenship tests on civics and English language.
The naturalization ceremony is the final step, where a green card holder takes the oath of allegiance and the government grants them a citizenship certificate.
Gail Breslow from Project Citizenship, an organization that supports immigrants who want to become naturalized citizens, said all of their clients from the 19 countries considered “high risk” by the government have had their ceremonies canceled. Those countries include Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
She said that includes at least 21 individuals, but the group has at least another 200 clients whose applications have been submitted to USCIS and are presumably in limbo because of where they were born.
