     This is Flag Day, a popular date for Naturalization Ceremonies as immigrants take the Oath of Allegiance to become citizens of the United States – and National Park Service sites are a popular location for those ceremonies.
Agency officials say hosting ceremonies enhances the meaning and stature of citizenship by building connections between new citizens and America’s parks.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is holding a Naturalization Ceremony today while Scotts Bluff National Monument held one yesterday.
The Mount Rushmore event will deliver citizenship to more than 150 people from over 40 countries. It begins this morning at 10:00 in the outdoor Amphitheater located in front of the Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center. The public is welcome
To celebrate both the ceremony and Flag Day, Mount Rushmore Superintendent Michelle Wheatley has replaced the 50 state flags on the Avenue of Flags with 50 American flags for today only.
Wheatley says the Avenue of Flags highlights the strength of the United States by recognizing the differences of individual states and territories, but today welcomes the new citizens by celebrating the unity that binds all American citizens together.
Yesterday’s Naturalization Ceremony at Scotts Bluff National Monument was the first ever held there with Panhandle residents in the past having to drive to Omaha or Denver for such a ceremony.
The Immigrant Legal Center + Refugee Empowerment Center in Scottsbluff and the Empowering Families program worked with the Citizenship and Immigration Services field office in Denver to hold the Scotts Bluff ceremony..
Empowering Families President Valeria Rodriguez reached out to the Denver office with the idea because as a junior at Scottsbluff High School, she had to go to Omaha to take her own Oath of Allegiance. She credits the Denver field director for a passion for community outreach and for seeing the importance of having local ceremonies.
Students from naturalization classes Rodriguez led made up the bulk of yesterday’s new citizens, but some immigrants in the region who passed their citizenship tests and interviews in Denver waited to take their Oath of Allegiance at the Monument.