New U.S. citizenship oath given

WASHINGTON -- Immigrants will gladly raise their hands to a citizenship oath that eliminates a reference to princes and potentates, an immigrant advocate predicted Thursday. But a critic said the rewrite removes the oath's majesty.

Immigration officials will use the new oath for the first time in a naturalization ceremony Sept. 17. Eduardo Aguirre Jr., director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, has said that the oath needed to be updated so its language makes "more sense to the brain."

In the current oath, immigrants swear to "renounce and abjure" allegiance to princes and potentates.

In the new oath, they "solemnly, freely and without any mental reservation ... renounce ... all allegiance to any foreign state."

The new oath is similar to one contained in a 1997 immigration report to Congress written by a commission led by former Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. That commission suggested that the oath be revised, said Russ Knocke, spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Homeland Security Department.

"That's a beautiful thing," said Angela Kelley, National Immigration Forum deputy director, after the oath was read to her. "The hundreds of thousands of people waiting in the (naturalization) backlog will gladly raise hands their to it."

But Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which wants to curb immigration, said the rewrite "takes away some of the majesty of the oath by simplifying the language." He called the rewrite "a gratuitous change."

Krikorian said immigrants should be taught the meaning of the oath when they study to become citizens.

In the current oath, immigrants swear to support and defend the Constitution and U.S. laws and to bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law. That is rewritten in the new oath as: "Where and if lawfully required, I further commit myself to defend the Constitution and laws of the United States."

Krikorian said some employees within the immigration agency are concerned the new language limits the requirement to defend the Constitution and the United States to government employees.

The immigration agency will collect public comment for 60 days after the oath is published in the Federal Register Sept. 17.