In today’s political climate there is much talk about immigration. Yet there is little attention given to what happens when immigrants do actually become United States citizens.

As a U.S. district judge for 31 years, by far the nicest part of my job was to preside over citizenship naturalization ceremonies. A naturalization ceremony is a celebratory event during which immigrants are granted U.S. citizenship.

Before the ceremony they have been interviewed, have studied for and passed a test, and have often waited for a long time. The test is in the form of questions asked by a citizenship and immigration services officer.

The questions cover several general topics, including the nature of American government, American history, geography, holidays and national symbols. Many native-born citizens would have difficulty in passing this test. Do you know the year in which the U.S. Constitution was written?

Naturalization ceremonies are happy occasions. New citizens take an oath of allegiance to this country, and are genuinely glad to have the opportunity to share the liberty that we U.S. citizens enjoy, but sometime fail to appreciate. Many of these folks come from places where there is no such thing as liberty.

They have an acute awareness of how fortunate they are to become citizens. New citizens often bring flags, friends and relatives, and engage in a lot of picture taking to commemorate this proud moment in their lives. Many of us do not stop often enough to realize how blessed we are to be citizens of the United States.

In most judicial actions, such as trials, there are winners and losers. One of the reasons I enjoyed these ceremonies was that no one went away mad or disappointed. After a naturalization ceremony, everyone goes away happy.

Over the years some touching and interesting things have happened at these ceremonies. I have always made it a practice to personally hand out citizenship papers to each new citizen.

On one occasion, an elderly, wheelchair-bound lady from Hong Kong and her middle-aged son became citizens at the same ceremony.

The pair awaited my calling of their names to come forward across a large room to collect their papers. After I read the mother’s name, I determined to walk across the room to present the papers to her. Before I had taken two steps, her son asked me to stop.

He said, “my mother wants to take these few steps on her own” to become a citizen. We all watched as the lady painfully pulled herself up off her wheelchair and slowly dragged herself about 50 feet across the room to receive her citizenship papers. The triumphant look of joy on her face made everyone, including me, tear up.

A few years ago I was approached after a ceremony by Mr. Guiseppe D’Amato, an Italian gentleman who had just become a U.S. Citizen. He showed me a military campaign ribbon, which he had pinned on his nice wool suit.

Mr. D’Amato told me that the ribbon had belonged to his son, who had been killed in action while serving in the U.S. Army. Then I watched as he proudly placed a U.S. flag pin given to him at the ceremony right next to the campaign ribbon.

On one occasion a brand new American citizen approached me at the conclusion of a ceremony, and asked if I would officiate a wedding for him and his fiancee. He explained that he had not wanted to get married before becoming a citizen because he did not want his future wife to ever think that he married her just to earn his citizenship.

Although it has been my practice to do weddings only for friends and relatives, I made an exception here. We had an impromptu wedding right on the spot.

A little-known fact is that one cannot be a U.S. citizen and simultaneously hold a royal title. When a woman, who was a baroness of some sort, presented herself for citizenship, we engaged in a special procedure. First, she renounced her foreign title, and then proudly became a U.S. citizen.

In 1976, my wife, Gail, and I, with the help of many other people, sponsored a Vietnamese refugee family. The parents and five young children (two girls and three boys) had left Vietnam by boat, and found their way to Singapore.

From there, they somehow landed at Fort Chafee, Arkansas, where we found them and brought them to our then home town, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Some years later I was appointed by the president to the bench. Then, I had the heartwarming task of presiding at the naturalization ceremony of one of the girls. (The others acquired citizenship through other venues.) The hug that I received from this girl when I presented her with her papers is something that I will always cherish.

For those who express concern about immigrants, it is worth considering the contributions that have been made to this country by these five children. Two became physicians, two became engineers, and one (an MIT graduate) is working in the tech field in Silicon Valley.

Naturalization ceremonies are conducted approximately twice per year in Marquette, usually at the federal courthouse, but sometimes at other locations.

If you want to reinforce your love of country, come to a new realization of how fortunate you are to be a U.S. citizen, and support our newest fellow citizens, you could attend one of these events. The public is always welcome.

The next naturalization ceremony in Marquette is scheduled for 11 a.m. July 24, at the federal courthouse on West Washington Street in Marquette.

Editor’s note: R. Allan (Al) Edgar is a U.S. district judge currently on inactive status. He served in the Eastern District of Tennessee and the Western District of Michigan.He and his wife, Gail, live in Marquette County.