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For New Americans, A Joyous Celebration

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By KAREN BRANCH-BRIOSO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 13, 2007

TAMPA - U.S. citizenship was a long time coming for Stanley Bryan.

He came to this country from Jamaica 54 years ago. On Wednesday, the Winter Haven man joined 446 others taking the oath of citizenship at the Tampa Theatre.

His time had come. Most of his family in Jamaica is gone now.

"My father died. My mother died. My brother and sister died," Bryan, 77, said. He explained why he waited so long: "Because most of my family is in the United States now."

Family played a big role, as it often does, in Wednesday's naturalization ceremony. The sounds of family reverberated throughout the ornate historic theater. Babies howled. Children giggled. Their parents spoke to them in a variety of accents.

Fahrudin and Edina Karic of St. Petersburg were among them. They and their son, 12-year-old Kerim, were there to trade in their Bosnian citizenship. Their youngest, Kennan, 9, a U.S. citizen by birth, was there to cheer them on.

And cheer they did when emcee Brett Rinehart read "Boznia-Herzegovina" aloud.There were fewer than 10 Bosnians becoming citizens. They sounded like an army with the Karics whooping it up.

Their presence was so boisterous that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Emilio Gonzalez joked that the crowd should join the Karics for an after-party.

Edina Karic, 38, said that soon after the celebration she'll register to vote.

"I'm so excited we can vote!" she said.

She and her husband want to vote for Hillary Clinton: "I liked Bill Clinton," said Fahrudin Karic, 40. "I like both of them."

Fees Created More Of A Challenge

Although these newest citizens hail from 79 nations, most come from 11: Canada, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines and the United Kingdom. The biggest group was Cuba, with 63.

Gonzalez, a Cuba native, could relate. He administered the oath Wednesday 41 years after his own naturalization ceremony in a Tampa courthouse. He was 9 years old then.

He called the new citizens "lucky." In a year when citizenship applications have surged in unprecedented numbers, theirs made it to the final step.

"You are doing what a lot of folks in the world want to do," Gonzalez said. "You want to become Americans."

The government significantly raised fees - some doubled - for many of its immigration service fees this summer. People flooded Gonzalez's agency with 2.5 million applications in June and July to beat the fee increases.

Gonzalez said he's shuffling employees from offices with lighter loads to those with big backlogs. He's hiring 1,300 more employees. He's plucking employees from retirement to help.

Still, people clamoring to be citizens must clamor longer. Last year, the average wait to process a citizenship application was six months.

"A week ago, it was probably about 16 months for people who applied in July to become citizens," Gonzalez said.

Some Waits Weren't So Bad

Esther Siret's wait wasn't so bad. She applied for citizenship early this year. But she's no newcomer. The Sarasota pharmacy technician came from Havana 10 years ago.

Siret, 42, had a lot of homework: "I was studying for the citizenship test and the English."

Monica Vargas, 35, a Tampa physician, delayed becoming a U.S. citizen because she still loves her birthplace, Cali, Colombia.

The clincher that prompted her to apply this year: She's a world traveler. And travel abroad is far more convenient if you have a U.S. passport instead of a Colombian one. Americans, she found, need fewer visas and fewer vaccinations.

Her love of travel prompted her to cancel her first naturalization ceremony last month. She had a trip to France scheduled. To her dismay, she found that immigration officials take away applicants' legal permanent resident cards before the ceremony.

"It occurred to me, 'I'm going to France and I won't be able to get back in without my green card,'" Vargas said.

She asked a surprised immigration official to return it. He rescheduled her ceremony, and rifled through a box of hundreds of green cards to retrieve hers.

Jerimer Jerome found out Wednesday that other immigration officials can cut red tape, too. The Cape Coral fisherman got lost on his way to the swearing-in ceremony. He missed the whole thing.

'This Is The Time'

So Kristen Smith, acting field officer for Tampa's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office, stepped in. At the back of the empty theater, she asked Jerome to raise his hand and to repeat the oath of citizenship.

He did, with his wife, Louisiane, standing proudly beside him. She's not a citizen yet. But she whispered the words along with her husband.

Thirty-one years after leaving their native Haiti, they were ready.

He is 55 now. His time had come, his wife said:

"This is the time he decided to be a U.S. citizen."

Reporter Karen Branch-Brioso can be reached at (813) 259-7815 or at kbranch-brioso@tampatrib.com.

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