Planning for the event began early last week when White House officials rushed to the Washington Office of the Civil and Immigration Office with a request to organize a naturalization ceremony at the White House, according to a senior administration official. Naturalization ceremonies have been held in the White House under former presidents and Mr. Trump himself, but this seems to be the first time anyone has been sent out during a political convention.
When the weekend arrived, White House officials asked for information on the potential candidates for the ceremony and suggested the bureau find immigrants from Mexico – something of a cover of Mr. Trump over Mexico. When he announced his candidacy in 2015, he warned of Mexican “rapists” coming to the United States, and he spent nearly four years trying to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. But Mr. Trump has been more complementary this year after Mexico directed security forces to stop migration from Central America.
When it happened, no one from Mexico was present at the ceremony.
Ms. Narayanan, from India, had traveled with her husband to the United States, who came on a student visa. Ms. Narayanan accompanied him on an F2 visa allowing spouses and dependents of foreign students at U.S. schools to stay temporarily in the United States. In July, the Trump administration proposed banning international students from their visas if they took exclusive online courses in the coronavirus pandemic, but after a call from colleges and universities, the rule was lifted.
Ms. Narayanan, who gave birth to two children in the United States, was granted legal residency in 2013. She said she took her citizenship test and had her required interview just a week before she received a call about the White House ceremony. .
“It was very warm and hospitable,” Ms Narayanan said of the incident with the president. “I told him it was such an honor to meet him.”
Ms. Awadelseid, from Sudan, studied twice at the University of Wyoming, first to obtain her masters in the early 1980s and then her doctorate in 1994. She said both degrees were in animal nutrition. She arrived permanently in the United States in 2000, and was eventually awarded a green card by sponsorship by her brother, who was already a citizen.
“The situation in Sudan was really not good politically and economically and everything,” she said. “When we found the opportunity to be a permanent resident here in the US, we stayed.”
