Abandoning home for allegiance

Reflections on the naturalization oath of citizenship

Photo courtesy of Peter Villafañe.

"I hereby declare, on oath…”

I started, standing outside the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services field office. I was taking the Oath of Allegiance. After 17 years of U.S. residence, I was becoming a U.S. citizen.

Under witness of the other newly naturalized citizens and the office director, I felt the weight of centuries of immigrants on my shoulders.

I was carrying on my back the family members who didn’t make it this far. 

I thought of home as I continued the oath.

“I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen…”

To become American, you have to put America first. Allegiance to anywhere else is treason.

A nation built on the backs of slaves and immigrants demands that people abandon the lands they were stolen from.

Pledge to the flag that was planted on your home as bombs dropped.

If I can’t pledge allegiance to the Philippines, why do I have to mark “Asian” on the Census? Are we not all just American at that point?

I am stripped of my identity but still othered for it.

“I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…”

I pledge allegiance to a piece of paper written by men who would not have seen me as anything more than a source of labor. I will fight for this antiquated piece of paper against people who look like me and my friends.

“I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant 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…”

I will take up violence for a country my homeland had to revolt against. My life for a country’s life. The law will be applied conditionally up to this country’s discretion. Martyrdom will be an honor.

“I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.”

If I don’t like these terms, I can move away. A country detrimental to the prosperity of others is aghast when people leave those countries. Well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of this country’s own actions.

If people had a choice, they would not uproot their lives and their families’ lives and abandon home.

A bright future is promised by those who stole the chance for that future in the first place.

I had completed the goal of the immigration process, according to my father.

I made it. My family was so happy for me. But I never felt further away from them.

Home has 7,000 islands and I became an island of my own.

As I walked through blurry vision away from the USCIS building, the last words of the oath rang in my ear: 

“So help me God."