Forty people celebrated becoming U.S. citizens Friday at SUNY Ulster. The ceremony was short and sweet, with renditions of the National Anthem and “America the Beautiful.”
New citizen Sharon Cheatham, who came to the U.S. from Trinidad and Tobago, is beaming as she and her mother exit the Quimby Theater. In one hand she waves her naturalization certificate, and in another, the American flag.
“I love the country and I love being here. And now I can say I’m an American citizen," says Cheatham. "And I can vote!”
At these events, it’s not unusual for attendees to stick around for refreshments and to register to vote. In Ulster County, volunteers with the League of Women Voters often hand out applications and packets of voter information to new citizens. They’re still here — but this time, Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Ashley Torres is standing by to oversee the applications.
“Just to have their back, and also to serve the new citizens if they had any questions of felt uncomfortable about it," Torres adds.
Torres says the county recently received a memo from U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, declaring third-party groups are no longer allowed to offer voter registration services at naturalization ceremonies. The new guidance, tied to one of the 26 executive orders President Trump signed on his first day back in office, says only state and local election officials can offer such services.
USCIS explained the change by saying the use of nongovernmental organizations is “sporadic” across the country, and it cannot ensure third-party groups are nonpartisan. It adds the change “in no way” impacts new citizens’ ability to access voter information, as election officials can still be on site, and most states offer online registration.
Even so, Torres says new citizens often have questions when they’re registering to vote, so it helps to have someone to talk to. She says the League of Women Voters has been a big help to the BOE over the years.
"It does help us that they do this, because I don't have to allocate staff members to come to registration drives and take away staff time," Torres explains. "We're a staff of 14 people. It's a small operation serving 144,000 active registered voters in Ulster County."
The League is a nonpartisan organization with a mission of encouraging “informed and active participation in government,” according to its website. But it has criticized some actions by the Trump Administration. CEO Celina Stewart blasted the new USCIS guidance in a statement this week, calling it “yet another intimidation tactic and attack on the immigrant community.”
Torres says county officials initially weren’t sure whether to invite the League to Friday’s ceremony, due to the new guidelines. But since the event took place at SUNY Ulster instead of a USCIS facility, leaders decided it would be OK.
Cindy Bell, treasurer of the League’s Mid-Hudson chapter, came even though she was nervous. She says the new guidance amounts to voter suppression.
“I think it’s meant to make people feel unwelcome," she adds. "And so we will redouble our efforts to make people be at home here.”
Even without the last-minute changes, Acting Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck says this was an unusual ceremony to organize. The Democrat says it ended up being smaller than expected: his office initially requested a ceremony of 100 new citizens from USCIS, but that changed about three weeks ago.
“Then they called us and said, ‘Well, we actually only have 32, we capped it at 60,'" says Bruck. "And we said, ‘Well, we have a whole theater reserved for this,’ so they were able to bump it up to 40. But yeah, I’m not sure what happened to the list of people who were ready to be naturalized six months ago, that are not ready anymore. But out of the 100 we were going to have, we only had 40 confirmed by USCIS.”
Ellie Johnson, who came to the U.S. from the Philippines, says she’s just relieved to be among them.
“It’s something to not take for granted, because not everyone can do this," says Johnson. "It takes a lot of guts to go through where we were and then wind up here, especially now with all the policies and actions and whatnot.”
