USA ONE WOMAN OF ECUADOR TOOK THE OATH OF US CITIZENSHIP AT THE AGE OF 95 YEAR WHICH IS VERY UNCOMMON IN THE COUNTRY HOWEVER THE OLDEST RECORD HOLDER IS TURKEY CITIZEN AT THE AGE OF 117 YEARS 25th August 2013 Very few of the 1,000 or so people who become Americans each month at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in West Palm Beach are as old as Maria Vega. Vega, a native of Ecuador who took the oath of citizenship last month, is 95. Of the 757,434 people who were naturalized in the U.S. in 2012, only 2.5 percent were 75 or older, according to government statistics. “I’ve never had a 95-year-old,” said West Palm Beach immigration attorney Judith Ballen, who has practiced immigration law since 1999 and was not involved in Vega’s case. “It is uncommon, definitely, to see someone 95 or older,” said Sharon Scheidhauer, a Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman. She said the oldest person to be naturalized is believed to be Manik Bokchalian, a woman from Turkey who became a U.S. citizen at age 117 in Los Angeles in 1997. Vega’s path to citizenship was made difficult by a small stroke and early signs of Alzheimer’s disease that left her unable to learn English to take the citizenship exam despite years of study, said her daughter, Miryam Ordonez. Immigration staffers initially seemed skeptical of Vega’s claim and a form signed by a Miami physician describing her condition, Ordonez said. But after a caseworker on the staff of U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, contacted the immigration office, Vega got a second to the United States to live with her daughter in 2006 and became eligible to apply for citizenship in 2011. From the time Vega arrived, Ordonez said, she studied for the citizenship test. “But when I asked her about what she studied, she got all confused,” Ordonez said. “Her intentions were to learn. She bought the CDs, she bought the books, everything. She wanted to learn English … but through the years she didn’t learn.” Murphy and members of his district staff chatted with Vega and her daughter and grandson over the patriotic cupcakes for about 20 minutes last Tuesday, pausing to take pictures. Ordonez called Angie Toro, the Murphy staffer who took the lead in handling Vega’s case, a “guardian angel.” Vega is “very happy” to be an American and she was delighted to meet Murphy, her daughter said afterward. “She couldn’t believe it,” Ordonez said. “She said, ‘Oh my God, I met someone from Congress.’
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 01:48:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015