By Jessianne Castle EBS ENVIRONMENTAL & OUTDOORS EDITOR
GARDINER –
On Sept. 5, 42 of the country’s newest citizens pledged an oath of loyalty to
the U.S. while backdropped by Yellowstone National Park’s Roosevelt Arch. The citizenship
candidates are originally from 23 countries scattered throughout Europe, Asia, South
and Central America, and Africa, among others, and currently reside in Utah,
Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
Through a
partnership between the National Park Service and the U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services that began in 2006, new citizens are welcomed at parks,
monuments and historic sites throughout the nation each year. According to
USCIS, this partnership is a way of “connecting the next generation of American
immigrants to the nation’s most historic and precious places.”
U.S.
Magistrate Judge Mark L. Carman administered the “Oath of Allegiance,” and
the crowd heard from guest speakers Pat Kenney, Yellowstone National Park
deputy superintendent, and Kristi Goldinger, USCIS Denver district director.
Last year, USCIS naturalized more
than 757,000 people, many of whom waited years to become U.S. citizens.
