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The majesty of becoming a U.S. citizen moves not just those who take the oath of allegiance. It's also a powerful and emotional moment for those who guide new Americans through the ceremony.
"To have new citizens of our country be administered the oath and to see the joy and pride that they have and also the pride that their family members and friends have is really quite remarkable," said U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan of the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Varlan guesses he's presided over more than 20 such naturalization ceremonies in the region during his more than 20 years on the federal bench. Fellow judges and magistrate judges share in overseeing the awe-inspiring ceremonies.
For Varlan, those moments hold special meaning because his own family went through the process of becoming naturalized citizens. Both his maternal and paternal grandparents came to America from Greece in the first half of the 20th century, passing through Ellis Island and eventually taking the oath of allegiance.
His loved ones have made the same journey that so many immigrants make when they come to the United States in hopes of a better life.
To this day, he proudly keeps the certificates of naturalization issued to several of his grandparents in his office in the Howard H. Baker Jr. United States Courthouse in downtown Knoxville.
"Actually, when I conduct a ceremony, I sometimes bring those certificates to the ceremony and talk with our new citizens about my ancestors and my family's own steps of coming to this country and becoming citizens of this country," the judge, who previously has been law director for the city of Knoxville, observed.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jill McCook presided over her first ceremony earlier this year in Knoxville, and she is set to conduct another later this year.
From 2023 to the present, people from more than 100 countries have taken part in area naturalization ceremonies. In that same time frame, about 1,000 people have become U.S. citizens, she said.
"We get to see lots of faces when they come to our ceremonies, and it is just a joyous occasion," McCook said.
Featuring dozens or even 100 new citizens, naturalization ceremonies are held routinely throughout the year within the district, which spans Chattanooga to the Tri-Cities.
Recent events have been held at the City County Building and the Blount Mansion downtown and in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area near the Kentucky border.
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants become naturalized citizens every year in the U.S. Many more aspire to do so.
The process involves many steps and can take many years. For example, you have to pass a background check to ensure you are of good moral character.
Some people live here 10 or more years before becoming citizens.
It's a solemn moment, sometimes even tearful for new citizens as well as their families. Varlan said he and his fellow judges take the opportunity to remind them about the rights and the responsibilities they're about to assume.
"It's a privilege, it's a right, it's a responsibility, sometimes taken for granted -- if we look at the percentages of people who vote in elections sometimes," Varlan said. "Certainly, that's something we encourage at the ceremonies -- to engage in the democratic process."
The judge recalled a unique ceremony he oversaw in 2003 for just one person -- a Russian man, age 104, who was in bad health. It was one of the man's last wishes to take the oath, and he was unable to attend a regularly scheduled ceremony.
Varlan met the man and his family at the old St. Mary's Medical Center in North Knoxville. Shlema K. Livshits swore an oath from a hospital gurney.
"That was probably the most meaningful naturalization ceremony I did -- with a 104-year-old gentleman on his hospital bed but proudly becoming a U.S. citizen," the judge said.
The United States came about because people wanted a place to start over and be free. Today, scores of citizens born elsewhere in the world now call East Tennessee and America home, their true home.
As he stands at a naturalization ceremony before a crowd of people who have worked so hard to become U.S. citizens, Varlan thinks about his own grandparents, what they went through and how they once had to take the very same oath.
The import of that thought is never far away.
"I think about that during the ceremonies and when I see their certificates in my office, and many other times," he said.
