The federal government is reversing cancellations of naturalization ceremonies across the state, according to Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler. Lawler sent a letter this week to the Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), calling on the agency to reverse the cancellations.
"My wife is an immigrant - one of the happiest days of our lives is when she attended a Naturalization Ceremony and became an American citizen," Lawler wrote in the letter to Edlow. "Stealing that same joy from other to be-citizens is wrong, plain and simple."
The government’s decision to cancel naturalization ceremonies across New York came as a surprise to officials in the counties that have traditionally held those events. The cancellations leave in limbo immigrants who have completed years of work to qualify to become American citizens, at a time when federal authorities are detaining and deporting non-citizens.
Onondaga County was scheduled to host a naturalization ceremony earlier this week. County Clerk Emily Bersani said she was only told by a USCIS official that ceremonies were cancelled and will be rescheduled.
“There was no explanation given” for the cancellation, she said.
Clerk’s offices in Broome, Rockland, Schenectady, Tompkins, Washington and Westchester counties received similar notices.
