KINGSTON, NY – New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey and Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck joined advocates and local leaders Friday outside the Ulster County Office Building to demand that the Trump administration reverse its sudden cancellation of Ulster County’s December 12 naturalization ceremony. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) called off the event late Monday, citing an insufficient number of candidates in emails to county clerks. Dutchess and Putnam counties also saw their ceremonies scrapped, despite USCIS recently walking back an earlier move to halt all naturalizations indefinitely across at least seven upstate counties.

Speakers included Victor Cueva, Executive Director of Ulster Immigration Defense Network and an immigration attorney; Bryan MacCormack, Executive Director of the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement; Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger; and representatives from the offices of Congressman Pat Ryan and Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha. City of Kingston Mayor Steve Noble, along with advocates and service providers from Children’s Home of Kingston and For The Many, also joined in support. 

Senator Michelle Hinchey said, “The arbitrary cancellation of naturalization ceremonies is as un-American as you can get. We should be celebrating new Americans, honoring their sacrifice, commitment, and ultimately their choice to claim this great country as their own. Instead, the Trump administration is ignoring and undermining the legal immigration system by denying people the right to finish the process. These individuals have followed every rule, met every requirement, and upheld every obligation set before them by our federal government. The Administration has a responsibility to honor that, not to derail their path to citizenship and disguise discriminatory policies as ‘new rules’ at USCIS. Our neighbors in Ulster and Dutchess deserve the dignity of completing their journey to citizenship, and we will keep speaking out until that right is fully restored.”

Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck said, “Becoming an American citizen is the culmination of years of sacrifice, perseverance, and commitment. Local naturalization ceremonies transform that milestone into a shared patriotic celebration for our entire community. I remain hopeful that USCIS will allow these ceremonies to return in 2026 so we can once again welcome new citizens at home.”

“People who came to this country, who came to our community, to build a better life for themselves and their families should be commended and rewarded for their hard work – not shunned by our legal system without warning or reason. I’ve been to these ceremonies, they are joyful occasions representing the very best of what our community can be,” said Congressman Pat Ryan. “For USCIS to cancel previously scheduled hearings for people that have been in this process for years, decades even, is a fundamental slap in the face to our community and the American dream as a whole. Cancelling naturalization ceremonies for people who have followed every legal process, met every qualification, and gone to every court day is more than wrong – it’s deeply un-American. The Hudson Valley deserves answers, and we won’t stop fighting until we get them.”

Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha said, “As a New American who got naturalized right here at the Ulster County courthouse, I found my experience to be the kind of welcoming and stabilizing experience I needed as I started my life in a new country, away from home and most of my family. The current attacks on naturalization ceremonies is just one more way the federal administration is declaring the United States is no longer a welcoming country, that in fact if you are an immigrant who is just trying to follow the rules, you’re likely to get snatched up by ICE agents at federal buildings. Here in Ulster County, we have people in many levels of government who believe in building communities that are welcoming, compassionate, collaborative, and solidaristic, and that’s the world we’ll continue to build as we stand here together in solidarity with everyone who wants to call this county home.” 

Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger said, “The federal government's rationale for cancelling our naturalization ceremony — that there aren't enough individuals to naturalize — makes little sense given the consistent numbers of new citizens at our ceremonies, including as recently as September. And frankly, why does the number matter? We are as happy to have a ceremony for three people as we are for 30. All that matters is that each of these individuals worked hard to meet the requirements of citizenship and deserve the dignity of a ceremony. They deserve to take the Oath of Allegiance before a State Supreme Court Justice, surrounded by family, friends, community members, and their elected officials. And they have been denied this rite of passage by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for no good reason.”

Victor Cueva, Executive Director of Ulster Immigration Defense Network, said, “Having gone through the Naturalization process myself, I can state that the ceremony is the culmination of a long and difficult process to become a U.S. citizen. It is wrong to cancel the joy of becoming a U.S. citizen for many people who looked forward to this day, and have completed all legal requirements and gone through multiple layers of vetting from the U.S. government. The naturalization ceremony needs to be reinstated immediately.”

Bryan MacCormack, Co-Executive Director of Columbia County Sanctuary Movement, said, “It is abundantly clear that no immigrants are safe under this lawless federal administration. Even those who eagerly await the opportunity to complete the final required step of becoming a citizen of the United States by participating in a naturalization ceremony are now targeted via the recent slew of cancelled ceremonies in Upstate New York. We call on elected officials on the local, county, state, and national level to demand the immediate and unimpeded reinstatement of naturalization ceremonies.”

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