The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum will host a naturalization ceremony on Friday, September 20 at 2 p.m. Seventy candidates from thirty countries will take the oath of allegiance to the United States of America renouncing and abjuring all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, or state.
The ceremony in West Branch, Iowa will be on the east lawn of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. This naturalization ceremony is a unique collaboration between four federal agencies and a private foundation. Magistrate Judge Mark A. Roberts of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa will preside. The Des Moines office of the Citizenship and Immigration Service, the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, the Hoover Presidential Foundation, and the National Park Service all contribute to this event.
This will be the fourteenth annual naturalization ceremony held at the Hoover Library and Museum. In the previous ceremonies, 955 immigrants became American citizens. This annual ceremony is a much anticipated event each fall at the Hoover. The excitement of those about to become citizens reminds us of our rights as Americans: freedom, equality of opportunity and civil liberties.
These ceremonies call to mind a Herbert Hoover quote posted in the rotunda of our museum:
‘I have had every honor to which any man could aspire. There is no place on the whole earth except in America where all the sons of man have this chance in life… Here alone are the open windows through which pour the sunlight of the human spirit. Here alone is human dignity not a dream, but an accomplishment. Perhaps it is not perfect, but it is more full in realization here than any other place in the world.’
Apt.