News and Ideas Worth Sharing
Editor’s note: The following was written by Amanda Giracca in her capacity as a Literacy Network. employee.
Antonio Navichoc splits his week doing landscaping work and running a masonry business. When he gets home in the evening, his five-year-old daughter wants to play, and so it is not until well after she is asleep that he finally has time to spend an hour or so studying for his U.S citizenship interview. He reviews the practice cards, working to know the answers to all 100 questions that could be a part of his citizenship interview. He will only be asked 10, but they could be any 10, and so he is learning them all. In addition, Navichoc goes straight from work to the Stockbridge Library one day a week to meet with his tutor from the Literacy Network (LitNet) for an hour to practice his English and to be quizzed on the citizenship questions.
Navichoc, 32 and a father of three, is one of 12 people who received the Matthew and Hannah Keator Family Scholarship for New Americans in 2024 through LitNet, a Lee-based organization that offers educational support for English language learners, prospective U.S. citizens, those studying for high school equivalency, and first-generation students. A Keator Scholarship covers the entire cost of submitting the N-400 application to the Department of Homeland Security, $760, plus a $100 processing fee paid to Berkshire Immigrant Center—expenses that are prohibitive for many individuals who are otherwise legally and linguistically prepared to become citizens. The scholarship also offers free tutoring sessions. A trained LitNet tutor helps the prospective citizen develop their English skills, learn U.S. civics, and know what to expect and how to comport themselves throughout the interview.
“The N-400 is a lengthy application,” says Navichoc’s tutor, Pamela Breslin, who also serves on LitNet’s Board of Directors and helps to lead the Keator Scholarship Program. “Every Keator Scholar begins their journey with Berkshire Immigrant Center (BIC), where they have a consultation with a caseworker. Then BIC will recommend certain people to apply for a scholarship.” Eligible individuals then apply for the scholarship with LitNet, including writing an essay where they make a case for how they are ready to become a U.S. citizen. Keator Scholarship candidates, Breslin says, “are people who entered the U.S. with the right documentation and have been here long enough to apply for citizenship with a Green Card. We screen them for fluency, ability to see a project through, and ability to study and meet regularly with tutors.”
This year marks the scholarship’s fifth year of existence. Since 2019, 45 Keator Scholars have become U.S. citizens. To date, the Keator Scholarship program has a 100 percent success rate.
In 2018, Lenox residents Matthew and Hannah Keator were invited to an event with a friend who was involved with LitNet. At the event, LitNet’s then-Executive Director Jennifer Vrabel spoke about LitNet’s work and mission. (“To transform the lives of adult learners, both immigrant and U.S. born, through the power of literacy, education, and advocacy.”) Vrabel’s speech resonated with the Keators, as did LitNet’s work with the immigrant community. After considering how they might contribute, they decided to reach out and work with LitNet on endowing a scholarship for the citizenship application, which led to the creation of the Matthew and Hannah Keator Family Scholarship for New Americans. The Keators made a $50,000 gift with the restriction of being used solely for scholarships. In 2019, the first four Keator Scholars became Americans.
“It’s moving to watch adult learners achieve their American citizenship after working so hard to not only learn the English language but learn about our history and government, too,” the Keators wrote last year for a statement in LitNet’s annual impact report. “Secondly, the United States was founded on immigration—it’s the backbone of who we are as a country and an important cog in the engine of our economy. We think an organization that helps people realize the American Dream by teaching them English and working through the legal process of obtaining citizenship is something that can be celebrated and supported by all.”
When asked specifically why they would want to pay for someone else’s citizenship application fees, Matthew Keator responded: “Some families might be faced with the decision to pay for the citizenship application cost or put food on their family’s table or sneakers on their kids’ feet, and we wanted to help make that decision a little easier. We have a proud history in this country of a nation of immigrants and for the folks who are pursuing the legal path to citizenship we felt they should be supported and celebrated. We are inspired by all the support Litnet provides to the community, and our partnership in this endeavor and the difference it’s making in people’s lives is something we are proud of.”
In the citizenship interview, applicants are asked a total of 10 randomly chosen questions from the 100 potential U.S. civics questions. They must answer six correctly. Whereas that might not sound particularly challenging, the average American born in the U.S. might have a hard time answering some of the questions. For example, who can list an author of the Federalist Papers (not to mention explain what they are)? Acceptable answers are James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, or Publius—the pen name the three used for their 85 essays published in various New York state newspapers between 1787 and 1788. Most people would likely be able to name one of the United States’ longest rivers—the Mississippi—but who can name the other? (It’s the Missouri.) We have all heard of the Constitution, but who knows the year in which it was written? (1787.)
The applicant must also demonstrate the ability to read and write. They must read one sentence out loud, and they must listen to a dictated sentence and write it out in English. Aside from any 10 of the 100 questions that the United States Citizenship and Immigrant Services (USCIS) agent can ask, the applicant also must know the details on their N-400 application. The application is 14 pages long (at minimum) and includes questions on marital history, children, schools attended, job history, and any travel the applicant has done outside the U.S. in the past five years. It also includes several pages of questions related to political advocacy, including whether the applicant has ever associated with a Communist or totalitarian party or advocated for opposition to organized government.
Breslin remembers one man who was asked to recite his three daughters’ birth dates in his interview. He knew the dates, but he had never said them out loud in English. He stumbled and failed that part of the test. The N-400 application fee, however, buys two chances to pass.
Overall, an interview goes on for about 30 minutes, and it “begins the moment they call their name in the lobby,” said Breslin. “The agent is trained to begin chatting. If a person is nonresponsive or awkward, they drill down on that. We always coach on small talk.” She has heard stories about careful agents who low-balled questions and stories about tough interviewers.
Bruno China, who emigrated from Brazil in 2000, was LitNet’s fifth recipient of the Keator Scholarship. China originally had an interview date of March 25, 2020. By that point, he had been a Green Card holder for 15 years and had begun the citizenship process two years prior. It had been his dream to become a citizen since he had left the violence of Rio de Janeiro behind, and it was finally happening.
On March 20, China told LitNet in a 2020 interview, he received a call from USCIS. The office was shut down due to COVID. He would have to wait even longer for his citizenship.
He was eventually issued a new date: November 12, 2020. He was pumped. He felt ready. He walked into the office with confidence and cordiality, just like he had practiced many times with his tutor.
But right from the start, the interview was “very, very painful,” he said. From the moment he greeted the agent, China felt intimidated. When they entered the room where the interview was held, China was told he was not allowed to sit down. The man told China to wait until he had come around the desk and had seated himself before he permitted China to sit. Throughout the interview, he threatened to deport China if he didn’t tell the truth.
Whereas some people find out right at the end of the interview if they have passed or not, China didn’t get an answer. He cried all the way back home from Lawrence (where Massachusetts’ USCIS office is located). His 15-year-old daughter, who had insisted on accompanying him to the interview even though she couldn’t go in, asked what was wrong. He told her what the agent had said. “I felt so scared. If I didn’t have my kids, I’d have taken the first flight back home,” he said, even though at that point he had been living in the U.S. longer than he had lived in Brazil. He was a good citizen. He paid his taxes. But at that moment, he said, “I felt like I didn’t belong here.”
Soon, however, he received notification that he had passed the interview. “I was born on November 12th,” China said. “I have two birthdays. Now I’m not a stepkid, but a child of this country. I’m so proud to be an immigrant.”
Others have had better experiences. Breslin remembers one Keator Scholar, Vania Lillie, who was so nervous at the start of the interview that she missed one of the first questions. The agent told her to take a deep breath. Another, Felipe Franca, said of his interview, “It was the best experience I could have.” Despite feeling tense in the waiting room, Franca and his interviewer had an easy and congenial conversation.
The final step to becoming a U.S. citizen is the swearing-in ceremony. Some individuals will have the opportunity to do this right after their interview if they pass. But in most instances, they will be issued a date for the next available ceremony after their interview. It is only after they have completed the oath at a swearing-in ceremony that a person is then officially a naturalized citizen and can register to vote and apply for a U.S. passport.
On Wednesday, October 23, 2024, a naturalization ceremony was held at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. The Museum’s Executive Director Laurie Norton Moffet gave opening remarks at the ceremony, which included an acknowledgment that the museum sat atop the “ancestral homelands of the Mohican people” who had been compelled to leave the area in the late 18th century. “Most of us are children of immigrants,” Moffet said.
Melissa Canavan, executive director of the Berkshire Immigrant Center, also spoke, saying that immigrants are “the spirit of the evolving culture of America,” which helps to create our nation’s “diverse tapestry of cultures and religions.”
“Embrace your identities,” Canavan encouraged the soon-to-be citizens.
Twenty-eight people from 20 different countries were sworn in that day. They came from all over the state. Among them was Francielle Tozzo, a LitNet-Keator Scholar who had moved to the U.S. from Brazil eight years earlier. After the ceremony, at a celebration hosted by the museum, she beamed. She had been so nervous that day, she said. Before, becoming a U.S. citizen had been “just an idea.” But now, everything felt “fresh and new,” she said. “I love the reception and embrace of me here as an American. I’m a better person than I ever thought I would be.”
When Breslin and Navichoc had met enough times for Breslin to feel confident Navichoc could ace his interview, he submitted his N-400 and now awaits an interview date. It is possible that his date won’t come until after the new administration has taken office in January.
When asked when the citizenship questions will be updated to reflect the new administration, LitNet Board of Directors member Lorena Dus, who is the director of Client and Community Services at Berkshire Immigrant Center, replied that it was still unknown. “The Biden administration said [such changes were] likely to be implemented at the end of 2024, but I haven’t seen any announcements, and I don’t think this is their priority.” For anybody who has submitted their application already, like Navichoc, “they will be tested under the test that was in place when they applied, so even if the government decides to change it tomorrow, it will only apply to new applications received on or after that date.”
President-elect Trump has promised sweeping immigration reforms on day one of his second term in office, from declaring a state of emergency and using the U.S. military to begin mass deportation of undocumented immigrants to challenging birthright citizenship. He has tapped his former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Tom Homan, as his “border czar,” to oversee “all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” as the president-elect posted on social media. Homan, when asked if he plans to separate families, said that families can be “deported together,” meaning that U.S. citizens could choose to leave the country with their undocumented relatives. According to the bipartisan political organization FWD.us, over 13 million citizens, permanent residents, and visa holders “live in ‘mixed-status’ households alongside an estimated 10.1 million undocumented individuals.”
As for the naturalization process, Dus said she doesn’t anticipate big changes, save for a potential delay in processing applications, as happened during Trump’s first term due to “extreme vetting.” “The bigger and faster changes will come for those who are currently undocumented,” she said. As for anything else, “We’ll have to wait and see.”
How this will affect Berkshire County’s local immigrant community remains a question.
“It’s hard to anticipate what our community will look like after the new administration takes office. People campaign on ideas that don’t always become reality,” commented LitNet Executive Director Leigh Doherty. “LitNet plans to keep doing the work we’ve always done. I beg people in our community to pause and look around. Peek into the kitchens of our restaurants, look at who’s working in our grocery stores, who’s taking care of our beautiful lawns, who’s working in our hospitals. Now imagine those people gone. That’s a potential reality. I invite everyone to look at our community with fresh eyes and to see how immigrants make our country vibrant, hospitable, and livable.”
Navichoc came to the United States 12 years ago from Central America. In his Keator Scholarship essay, he cited opportunities for better living and voting in U.S. elections as things very important to him. He also said he has more protection here in the U.S. This country, he wrote, “has opened the doors for me and my family,” and he feels a responsibility to give back and help others. “As a father of three children, I want my family to feel proud to see me become a citizen,” he wrote. “I will make the commitment to be a good citizen. As an immigrant, I value everything that this country has offered me since I came.”
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