Good morning.

My name is Bruce Pollen.

I am the field office director for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in Oklahoma City.

It is my pleasure to be here with you today for this ceremony.

This is the absolute best part of my job.

I say that at the beginning of every naturalization ceremony we have, but in particular, the ceremony here in Tulsa at the gathering place for our for the N600 new citizens is the best part.

I'd like to thank the city of Tulsa for helping to make this possible.

To begin our ceremony, we will have a presentation of the colors by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma.

After we have the presentation of the colors, we will have the Pledge of Allegiance by the Tulsa Change Makers, followed by the national anthem by Louis or Louis Sorano Sorian, sorry.

I do this for a living, but sometimes names still get me.

Luis Soriano of Tulsa Youth Opera and the Sistema Tulsa Community Youth Orchestra.

So the Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma.

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Plenty.

Thank you, you may be seated.

Now, before the ceremony began, I mentioned that you all represent the entire world.

The strength of the entire world is represented by you.

In our ceremony today, we have nineteen individuals from eleven different countries.

I am going to read the countries represented in this ceremony.

When I read the country that you are from, please, if you are able, take a moment to stand, turn around, wave the wave the flag, because somebody back there wants a picture of you.

Now, it's taken a lot for them to get here.

So this is a perfect opportunity for everybody to make some noise for him.

Clap, cheer, stomp your feet, just make as much noise as you can.

After I read your after I read your country, you stand up for a minute, sit down, and I'll read the next country.

In no particular order other than alphabetical.

That I absolutely and entirely.

Against all enemies.

Foreign and domestic.

That I will bear true faith.

And allegiance to the same.

That I will bear arms on behalf of the United States.

When required by the law, that I will perform non-combatant service.

In the armed forces of the United States.

When required by the law.

That I will perform work.

Of national importance.

Under civilian direction.

When required by the law.

And that I take this obligation freely.

Without any mental reservation.

Or purpose of evasion.

So help me God.

Congratulations, you're a newest citizens.

You may now be seated.

And now we will hear from our keynote speaker, Mayor Monroe Nichols the Fourth.

Well, thank you, Bruce, and uh welcome, my fellow Americans.

Joe, so proud of each of you, and so great, so great to call you my fellow country men and women.

I do want to thank Bruce and USCIS.

I obviously want to thank the gathering place for hosting us once again here.

I had to miss the last one, so this is very exciting for me to be here.

Uh, also want to thank the Girl Scouts.

Uh, thank you so much.

That was amazing.

I must say I appreciate the initiative to jump up here.

I love this so much.

It's like, hey, Girl Scout said y'all gonna be on time today.

Um, it's absolutely amazing.

Um, my man Luis, where are you at, man?

Hey, you crushed it, dude.

You crushed it, that was amazing.

Our orchestra over here, thank you all so much.

Absolutely, Tulsa Changemakers, help lead us in the pledge.

Thank you all so much.

Also, to thank Experienced Tulsa for being a part of this.

Uh certainly want to recognize the members of our team, the Office of Resilience and Equity led by DeAndre, and Tabitha Tsar Walk Battle.

And so many others who are part of our team at the city.

Certainly want to recognize a couple of our elected leaders at City Hall, Counselor Christian Bingle, who is here, thank you, Counselor, for being here.

You can stand up, let's see who you are.

And Counselor Anthony Archery is also here.

Thank you, Councillor, for being here.

We want to recognize somebody who has been so key and critical to the work we do across City Hall, including um the history of us serving our immigrant communities well, someone who is now uh serving in a capacity where every single day she's waking up thinking about how can this be the very best place in the entire country for children and youth, and that is our Deputy Mayor Chris O'Reilly.

And as for me, it is an honor to be with you all this day.

This is a day that I know that you all will remember and certainly we all will too.

Certainly marks a new chapter for you all as citizens of this great country, and I gotta tell you, I hope you can feel we're very proud to welcome you uh to America as our neighbors and citizens.

I've had the great fortune now for 42 going on 43 years to be a citizen of this country, and I can tell you uh that it never gets old, and the best thing about America is whether you've been here, you know, 40, almost 43 years like me, or you've been here for about 43 minutes, you have this amazing opportunity uh to make it a significant contribution here, and this country is the most diverse country in the world, and so every opportunity we have to bring in additional cultures continues to make us strong.

I gotta say, as we walk into our 250th birthday to be here today with young people from, I believe it is 12 different countries, if I'm not mistaken, who are adding to the vitality and diversity of America.

That is how I know we're going to continue to have a strong country and a strong city.

I think it's important to note whether you think about it from an immigrant standpoint, or you think about it from a youth standpoint, I hope you all know that your voice matters a great deal.

Your voice is needed, your voice is necessary, and I'm really excited that Tulsa is going to be the greatest beneficiary of the newest citizens of this country.

You know, I think that Tulsa obviously is one of the best places to live.

I talked about this in the context of that 250th birthday of America.

I talked about in just the last few weeks in this city.

We have celebrated the 100th anniversary of uh Route 66, uh, really cementing our place in this nation's history as it leads to infrastructure and highways and moving and connecting people.

I talked about just that same weekend we commemorated the 105th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Master, not necessarily just not necessarily just celebrating what was destroyed, but celebrating what was built.

This laid on the foundation of a city that was the old capital of the world, a city that is the largest in the country that's all Indian reservation, a city that whoever you were, no matter what you look like, folks built an amazing history, future of great innovators who came right here.

And so I do believe that Tulsa is not only the capital of Route 66 and all that kind of stuff.

I think Tulsa's an important gateway to the American dream, and we continue to live that out.

And I think our future is super bright with our new newest Americans here today.

You know, I just last week took my son Gavin on some college trips, and I'm dealing with the fact that he's leaving home soon.

And I remember about the best day in my life, and I bet if you ask anybody who's a parent, the best day in their life is probably the day that you all were born.

It is always going to be something that we as parents remember as the days that our life changed in the most amazing ways because this new energy, this new life, this thing that that has been so additive, this thing that you love came into your life.

You can almost can't even remember what life was like before they got there.

So when when when children come into our life, it is incredibly special.

I think it is also true in the life of a nation that when we have new faces and new voices and young people who become part of this great American experience, this thing that we all have to do together.

I think that is one of the best days in the life of a nation, just like having a child is one of the best days in the life of a parent.

And so, of all the things that are going on and all the places that any of us could have been, I am convinced that this right here is the very best place.

Because I think this today is one of the best days because, yes, we have brought 22 new faces from 12 different countries who have nothing but a bright future ahead of them and ahead of them, and that future as American citizens started right here in Tulsa, right here at the gathering place.

What a great day to be mayor.

What a great day to be in Tulson, what a great day to be an American.

As future leaders, neighbors, artists, teachers, entrepreneurs, and most importantly, Tulsans, I wish you all great success, a full future of possibility as American citizens, and I thank you in advance for being the best representation of what it means to earn citizenship, what it means to dream big and what it means to build a bright future, not just for yourself, but for everybody else, because at the end of the day, that is what it means to be American, and that is what it means to be a Tulson.

Congratulations to each and every one of you, and you congratulations to your families, and God bless you all.

After which I will distribute the certificate.

At this time I will be handing out the certificates of citizenship.

When I read your name, please come up and get your certificate.

And if you please take a moment to just shake the hands of Mary Nichols and the council members and deputy mayor that are here.

Also, just really quickly, a couple of things about your certificate.

Don't let somebody steal your identity by posting a photo of your certificate online.

Also, you all have wonderful, lovely, beautiful names.

Some of them are going to be hard for me to say.

If I mispronounce your name, I do apologize.

Nicole Mendoza Castillo.

Jose Emilio Mendoza Castillo.

Coal Dem Sing.

Fernando Jose Guyan Avila.

Miguel, I'm Hel Rosales are good.

Thank you.

Timmy Joya.

So those are all of our certificates.

At this point, we will have our closing remarks by Tampa by Tabitha Adams, the Immigration and Refugees Affairs Manager for Tulsa.

Good morning and congratulations to our newest citizens.

Citizenship represents belonging, it represents opportunity and the promise of a shared future.

While some of these young ones may not fully comprehend the importance of what is happening here today, I believe as the years go by, they will come to appreciate the fact that they are now part of a nation that values their contributions and celebrates their potential.

Now at this time, I want to specially thank all the families here today who made this day possible for all our young ones.

Behind every child becoming a citizen today is undoubtedly a story of sacrifice and resilience.

Many of you have worked tirelessly to create opportunities and a brighter future for these young ones today.

It is because of your commitment, we are all guided here today.

So let's take a moment to recognize and applaud our parents and guardians here today.

Now to our newest citizens, we are honored to celebrate this milestone with you.

We look forward to watching you learn, grow and contribute to the future of Tulsa in this great nation in the years to come.

Once again, congratulations to you all.

Thank you for taking time off your busy schedule to celebrate with us.

We are really grateful.

Thank you.

Also, I would like to thank our entire team.

I'd like to take the comes and security team.

Thank you so much for being present here today and getting everything together.

Thank you so much for coordinating and working with us and getting this program together.

Thank you so much.

And they want to celebrate this joyous moment with us all.

So they have a big package for an US citizen.

So once we are done with the program, you can head down downstairs.

She should be available to give you uh some gifts.

Thank you.

Um, we are going to be taking photos with the mayor and all the elected officials here today.

We will direct you to where you have to go and take those photos.

If you want access to the photos, we have the information right here on the ceremony that has been given to you.

You can follow our page at Resilient Tulsa.

We will upload the photos so you can go back there and download the photos if you want to.

This ceremony is also being recorded, and you can go back and watch it if you ever want to do that.

We will have it uploaded to TGov.

The information is also on the packet that has been given to you.

Thank you so much for being here today, and congratulations to you all.