Edith Soto had watched the national Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and worried, each day, that her father wouldn’t come home.
Jesus Soto was born in Mexico but has lived in the United States since 1988. He’d tried twice before to gain citizenship, but it wasn’t until Monday that he was finally naturalized. It meant the world to his daughter.
“It feels like, finally, a wave of fear is finally gone,” Edith Soto said. “To not have that fear anymore with my dad, to not fear anymore — I’m really happy.”
Jesus Soto was one of 46 people from nearly three dozen countries to take the Oath of Allegiance in the auditorium of the main branch of the Akron-Summit County Public Library Monday afternoon. Together, the soon-to-be citizens stood and raised their right hands, pledging to support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States.
They were called across the stage to receive their naturalization certificate, photographed with U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-Akron) and John R. Adams, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, and cheered by family members and other supporters who were thrilled to celebrate the new citizens.
“I was so proud of her because she worked hard,” 10-year-old Adam Doumouya said of his mother, Assiatia Bamba, who came to the U.S. three years ago from the Ivory Coast and now lives in Bedford. “Every night, she would go on TikTok to learn how to do citizenship so she could pass.”
Adam, who took pictures of his mother and recorded the ceremony, also quizzed her, he said. When she walked across the stage, he said, “a huge burden was off her shoulders.”
‘Now you’re one of us’
The naturalization ceremony comes at a time when the federal government has said it will restrict people from 19 countries from becoming citizens of the United States.
At other naturalization ceremonies in the country, people who expected to pledge their own oaths were prohibited from doing so. No one at the Akron ceremony was from one of the countries President Donald Trump is trying to restrict and no one was unable to take the oath.
Adams, the judge, told the new citizens that the Constitution is not perfect — it required amendments to free people from slavery and give equal rights to all — and the country is not perfect. But, he said, by being active citizens, they can help make it better.
He asked them to vote, to speak out on important issues, to treat everyone with dignity and respect and to not abandon their heritage as they assimilate into the U.S.
“This is now your country, not perfect, but certain to be made better by that which you have brought and will continue to bring to it,” he said before administering the oath. “Each of you once came as a stranger, and now you’re one of us.”
Sykes promised the residents a “safe haven” in her office if they had any issues. She referenced “interesting things” happening at the federal level but said she was ready to stand with the immigrants and their families if they faced any challenges.
At the same time, she assured them that their presence in their communities added to America’s richness. She urged them, as they built their lives here, to contribute themselves to the American Dream.
“We will gladly adopt you as one of our own,” Sykes said. “Your journey is now woven into the story of this community.”
Making things better
Judith Jeptum, who gained her citizenship Monday, was the second in her family to do so. Her sister, Mercy Jerop, took her own oath in August. Her parents, Lena and Humphrey Boor, have their interviews in January. All came to the U.S. from Kenya, with Humphrey Boor arriving in 2014 and Jeptum coming in 2020. They live in Cuyahoga Falls.
“It feels official now,” Jeptum said. “I count myself among the lucky people.”
Still, she said, she hopes that President Trump and federal officials make it easier for people to gain citizenship, not harder.
“We’re praying about it,” she said. “Change his mind and make things the way it was again.”
Jesus Soto’s mother gained citizenship under the administration of President Ronald Reagan when he was a minor, but she couldn’t initially afford to finish his application then, he said. She later filed another petition for him as an unmarried minor, but he got married at 17 and that application was deferred. He’s since remarried, to an American citizen, and estimated he spent upwards of $20,000 to get to this point.
The couple has paid off vehicles and a mortgage, said Jesus Soto, who lives in Willowick. He compared the feeling of attaining citizenship to the joy of owning cars and homes outright — but “on a higher level.”
“There’s definitely a weight off,” he said. “It’s like paying off a huge debt, finally.”
Jesus Soto said he doesn’t look Hispanic, so he hasn’t been a visual target for officers, but there’s always a concern about what could happen. Still, even with ICE raids and his family’s fear, he’s glad to call himself an American now.
“I don’t think one bad thing should be the definition that the country is bad,” he said. “No matter how great a thing is, there is always something that could be done better.”
The new citizens came from Russia and Ukraine; Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Israel; New Zealand, Iceland and Canada; Bhutan, Nepal, China and Vietnam; and more than a dozen other countries.
For each, Adams said, one journey ended on Monday and a new one began.
That’s certainly the case for Bamba, who said she was thrilled to be an American and grateful for the opportunities she’ll have here.
“It will be a better life,” she said. “I love America. … They support everyone. They like everyone, wherever we came from.”