It was a long road for Mireille Desormeaux to take her oath of citizenship at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in early August.
She is one of the 14 green card holders who sued the federal government with Project Citizenship earlier this year after being denied the ability to naturalize. Twelve have now become US citizens, 11 of whom were from Haiti originally, including Desormeaux.
“It was a really big day for me. I was going through a lot of emotions because I saw it was really me becoming a U.S. citizen during this period of high deportation. I said to myself that now I have to serve the country back,” she said.
Desormeaux, 53, applied in June 2025, but had her U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services interview — part of standard protocol for naturalization — cancelled in December. She heard nothing from the government after that, and joined the lawsuit in the spring. In July, USCIS scheduled her for an interview, which she passed, allowing her to attend an oath ceremony.
There was no court document that showed an official decision, just individual oath ceremony notices from the U.S. Attorney’s office and USCIS. Many green card holders who were waiting for those notices for many months hadn’t received because the USCIS directed its employees to stop work on immigration pathways for people from countries deemed to be “high risk.”
Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit were from Haiti, Venezuela and Côte d’Ivoire.
“They’d been waiting more than eight months since the federal government froze immigration actions, including naturalization proceedings, for people from 39 so-called “high-risk” countries in a transparent effort to discourage people from making America their home,” said Gail Breslow, executive director of Project Citizenship. “It was deeply moving to see these brave individuals take the final step to become U.S. citizens — a step they had earned and richly deserved.”
The Boston-based immigrant legal services nonprofit works to help permanent residents through the naturalization process. The ongoing restrictions put in place by the Trump administration caused fewer green card holders to apply at their annual citizenship day this year.
One immigrant’s pathway to citizenship
Desormeaux moved to the U.S. in 2013 with a tourist visa for the funeral of her mother, who lived here. She later married, and attained permanent residency. Desormeaux said she wanted to assimilate into the country. By 2025 she felt ready — she had a family and a job as a certified nursing assistant at Boston Medical Center Brighton. Desormeaux wanted to feel more of a part of the community, and have security.
“I wanted to be able to vote, and I wanted to have a U.S. passport to be more stable here,” she said. Desormeaux wants the possibility of bringing her brother and sister to the U.S., which is now possible with citizenship. “Haiti is pretty unstable right now. And I wanted to petition for them in the future,” she said.
Desormeaux has a 12-year-old son, a U.S. citizen, who was happy to see her return home with a small American flag.
“He said, “Now you are U.S. citizen, so I don’t have to worry about being separated from you. They’re not going to send you back to Haiti. You’re going to stay here with me,”’ she recounted.
Plaintiff Adeline Mendes, 50, had her oath ceremony at Faneuil Hall on July 16. She came to the U.S. in 2016 with her two children from Haiti. Her mother successfully petitioned for Mendes to join her through the family reunification program, which allows citizens and permanent residents to sponsor close relatives.
The victory came months after Mendes had an appointment with USCIS for her ongoing citizenship application last fall, when it was suddenly cancelled.
“I felt like my heart was going to stop beating — It was not a good moment,” she said. “I said to myself, 'as long as I’m alive, I can become a U.S. citizen and I can still continue to work and wait for them to call me.’” She works as a personal care attendant.
Mendes hoped to petition for the father of her 20- and 15-year-old children to come to the U.S. once she was a citizen. The children haven’t seen him since 2016.
The Project Citizenship lawsuit is still pending because there are two clients whose cases are still unresolved. Others that aren’t part of the suit are still waiting — a RI judge recently ordered USCIS to resume processing applications — along with hundreds more of Project Citizenship’s clients, and thousands around the country.
“It’s no secret that USCIS is slow-walking applications for citizenship and so much more,” said Breslow.
