Ronghui Wang was sitting on a bench inside a fifth-floor courtroom at the Berks County Courthouse on Wednesday, clutching a handful of documents tightly in one hand and waiting patiently for his name to be called.
When it was his turn, he approached a table where an immigration services officer was stationed and handed over the paperwork he had assembled into a neat pile.
It was the last step in his long journey to become a United States citizen, and it was one that Wang had been thinking about for more than 27 years.
He was 17 years old when he first arrived here from China.
His parents, who worked on farms in their native country, immigrated to the U.S. in 1991 seeking better opportunities for their family. Wang stayed behind with his grandmother while his parents got themselves established.
But without a strong grasp of the language, his parents struggled for a few years working in kitchens and learning the business. All that work paid off when they opened their own restaurant and were able to realize the American dream for themselves.
They sent for Wang shortly after that in 1999.
“They worked really hard for what they had,” Wang said. “It inspired me to follow my own dreams and so I opened my restaurant in 2014.”
He said opening Wong’s Chinese Restaurant in Reading has been one of the best decisions he has made. While being a business owner can be demanding and difficult, he has found a sense of belonging in the community he loves.
“Being a good citizen is helping my community,” he said. “I know that by becoming a citizen I can make the kind of difference that I have always wanted to make.”
At the Berks County Courthouse on Wednesday, 52 people took the oath of citizenship during a naturalization ceremony. (KAREN SHUEY – READING EAGLE)
Wang was one of 52 people from nine countries who became American citizens during a naturalization ceremony organized by the Berks County Bar Association and presided over by Berks County Judge Ben Nevius.
While the ceremony may have made his status as a citizen official, Jose Nunez said he has no memory of living in Mexico. He arrived in America with his family and siblings when he was just a little boy and has never been back to his native country.
“I know my mother came so we could have a better life, but I know very few details about the whole thing,” the 61-year-old said.
Jose Nunez stands proudly with an American flag following a naturalization ceremony on Wednesday at the Berks County Courthouse. (KAREN SHUEY – READING EAGLE)
Nunez said he was told the family came here legally but that paperwork was lost long ago. And, he noted, efforts in recent years to find those documents through federal government records were unsuccessful.
Given the Trump administration’s focus on deporting noncitizens, Nunez felt he needed to legally become a U.S. citizen.
“I was happy just being a resident, but watching all the deportations I thought it would be best to make sure I had all the rights of being a citizen,” he said. “But nothing for me is really going to change in my day-to-day life — I don’t feel any different.”
There is one thing, however, that Nunez is looking forward to that he was unable to do before earning official citizenship status: voting.