Sixteen North Coast residents are among America’s newest citizens

The Sonoma County Library in downtown Santa Rosa was always a refuge for Lauro Vazquez, a place where he could avoid the dangers of street life and lose himself in a book. After school, the young Mexican immigrant would spend hours in the library doing his homework before going home.

“When I started getting into reading, that's when I started liking it here,” Vazquez said Wednesday, standing in the meeting room of the main library shortly after taking the Oath of Allegiance for U.S. citizenship.

Vazquez was among 16 people who took the oath at the library Wednesday morning, the first citizenship ceremony to be held in Santa Rosa in 20 years, immigration officials said.

The ceremony was held locally as a way of recognizing the importance of the immigrant community in the North Coast, said John Kramer, San Francisco district director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS.

“There are so many immigrants that come and make their lives here, that work hard here and continue their immigration journey to be citizens of the United States,” Kramer said of the Santa Rosa decision.

Citizenship ceremonies hosted by the San Francisco district of the USCIS, whose region includes the coast from King City to the Oregon border, usually swear in 1,100 new citizens every two weeks, said Sharon Rummery, a USCIS spokeswoman. The events are typically held at large Bay Area venues such as the Paramount Theatre in Oakland.

Representatives from the Sacramento district of the USCIS were also in attendance Wednesday, as was Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena.

The 16 newly sworn-in citizens hailed from seven countries - China, Eritrea, Jordan, Lithuania, the Philippines Mexico and Pakistan. Nine were from Mexico.

In the past decade, more than 6.6 million immigrants became naturalized citizens. During the 2015 fiscal year alone, 729,995 did.

Vazquez was brought to the United States from his native Mexico in the late 1990s. His family lived in Windsor at first but then moved to Santa Rosa in 2000 after his parents bought a home. Though he lived in Santa Rosa, Vazquez attended Windsor High School, taking the bus to and from school.

After graduating from high school, Vazquez attended Dominican University in San Rafael and received a bachelor's degree in humanities. He now works as a code enforcement officer for the Novato Community Development Department.

Vazquez said he began thinking about becoming a citizen about six years ago when he started traveling.

“I realized this is my home,” he said. “This is where I grew up, this is where I was raised, this is where my home is.”

Sana Lodhi, 33, of Santa Rosa also took her oath of allegiance Wednesday. Lodhi, a pharmacy supervisor at Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center, was brought to the United States from Pakistan by her parents, Naseem and Humayoon Lodhi, when she was two years old.

Lodhi is the only one among her siblings who was born in Pakistan. Her parents, who were married in Los Angeles, briefly returned to Pakistan before she was born. Her path to citizenship began when her parents filed for asylum when she was a teenager.

“I didn't think I was going to get emotional but I did,” Lodhi said after the ceremony.

Naseem and Humayoon, who have been legal permanent residents for more than three decades, said they are proud of their daughter and are now themselves motivated to become citizens.

“This is our country. We belong here now,” said Naseem Lodhi. “We go back to Pakistan and we feel like we don't belong there anymore.”

Jose Gonzalez, associate pastor of Resurrection Church in west Santa Rosa, was also among the new citizens. Gonzalez, who is originally from Mexico, said he resisted becoming a citizen for many years. He has been in the United States for 16 years.

“I wanted all those brothers and sisters without papers to be given the opportunity to become citizens before I did,” said Gonzalez, speaking in Spanish.

But he said he finally gave in to pressure put on him by Stella Agudelo, the director of religious education in Spanish. Agudelo also attended the ceremony Wednesday.

Agudelo said she hopes Resurrection parishioners, 70 percent of whom are Latino, are encouraged by their religious leader's decision to become a U.S. citizen.

“For us, it's great excitement,” she said.

The agency invites new citizens and their families and friends to share their photos at their ceremonies via Twitter using the hashtag #newUScitizen.

For more information about U.S. citizenship and other immigration programs, visit www.uscis.gov or follow the agency on Twitter at @uscis, YouTube at Youtube/uscis.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at (707) 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.