KINGSTON – The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service has cancelled the scheduled September Ulster County naturalization ceremony. The agency cites an insufficient number of candidates currently awaiting their oath of allegiance.
This is the second year that a scheduled Ulster ceremony has been cancelled. The December 12 event cancellation was also because of an insufficient number of candidates, according to the federal agency.
The cancellations are in contrast to plans by the county clerk’s office and the federal agency while planning for the nation’s 250 anniversary when there was discussion to naturalize over 100 new citizens.
County Clerk Taylor Bruck said the March ceremony naturalized 36 new citizens, and only 16 took their oath of allegiance at a second ceremony in July.
“We’ve seen no indication that there is funding or to make the legal process for folks. Everything we hear from people going through the process is that it’s expensive, difficult,” he said. “If we are honestly trying to reduce illegal immigration, making it easier to do it legally is a very valid option that I wish the federal government was a little more serious about other than just detaining people and sending them away. There is another way to combat the illegality of these folks, and it is to make them legal citizens.”
Bruck said there is much talk about building more detention centers. “Imagine if we brought that same urgency to building more processing centers. More clerks, more facilities, and faster legal immigration system.”
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