142 New Citizens Sworn In At Highland Park High School Ceremony

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Dozens of new United States citizens forswore their allegiance to other countries and pledged to support and defend the Constitution at a ceremony Monday at Highland Park High School. The 142 naturalized immigrants came from 46 countries and were welcomed at a ceremony organized by the student board of the Highland Park-Highwood Legal Aid Clinic, according to Executive Director Susan Shulman. It marked the third consecutive year that the HPHS students have coordinated a naturalization ceremony at the high school.

Meeting one evening a month at a Highland Park bank, the 30-member student board puts on a variety of events throughout the year, including presentations about the clinics work on immigration, domestic violence and housing. Students work with the school and board liaison Terry Kass to schedule the event and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to provide everything needed to welcome new citizens.

Highland Park students also provided musical accompaniment. The national anthem was performed by board member Hanna Greenberg, and a brass ensemble led by HPHS student Jacob Weisbard performed at the ceremony. A color guard was provided by local posts of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Two of the four children of Samaher Saleh, who was born in Jordan, were on hand to watch their mother become a citizen, a decade after she arrived in the country with her U.S.-born husband, Pioneer Press reported.

“You sort of take it for granted when you are born here,” Omar Saleh told the paper. “You forget how much of an honor it is. It is a great privilege to be an American.”

According to the USCIS, countries represented at the event included, in alphabetical order: Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Belize, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, China, Columbia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, South Korea, Syria, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.

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