Nation of immigrants: Sleeping Bear naturalization ceremony rose above caustic political debate
Republished from our July 28, 2016, edition—on the occasion of the nation’s semiquincentennial, which we are covering throughout 2026. As U.S. Magistrate Judge Phillip J. Green told 20 new citizens at their naturalization ceremony at Sleeping Bear Dunes headquarters in Empire a decade ago, “You are the future of America. You are the promise of America.” Those words ring just as true today.
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and the nation’s 142 national parks have 20 new stewards. They are not rangers or park superintendents. They don’t clear trails or check entrance passes. They don’t even wear uniforms. They are 20 new United States citizens, naturalized at a celebratory and educational ceremony on July 21, 2016, at the Sleeping Bear Dunes Visitors Center in Empire. (The ceremony was scheduled to be held at the Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station at Glen Haven, but an impending storm forced park staff to move indoors.)
The 20 new Americans hail from 15 different countries including Mexico, Cuba, Russia, Vietnam, India and the Philippines. They include: Cecilia Molina Espinoza, a Mexico City native who immigrated to Bloomington, Minn. (home of the Mall of America) a decade ago to attend eighth grade and now works for a company in Kalamazoo; Asdrubal Cabeza, a Havana native who came to Michigan five years ago and is now a truck driver near Grand Rapids, and Gurdeep Singh from India, an engineer who worked for 4 years at Stryker Corporation in Kalamazoo and started his own business two years ago. Many of the new Americans brought spouses, parents and young children with them to the ceremony. They are white, black and brown; their names and native country religions are Protestant, Catholic and Muslim. Like American immigrants for the last 238 years, they are hardworking, creative and devoted to their new nation.
And by reciting the pledge of allegiance to the Stars and Stripes (held by a Marine Corps color guard from Traverse City) they transcended the caustic political debate that has engulfed our current presidential election. On the same day that the Republican pick for President delivered a nomination speech that proposed curtailing immigration from many foreign lands, these naturalized citizens — all of whom live in Michigan — listened as U.S. Magistrate Judge Phillip J. Green read the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, whose words remain as radical and subversive as they were in 1776.
Green used the allegory of the Ojibwe “Legend of Sleeping Bear” about the mother bear and baby bears who escape a forest fire across Lake Michigan and become the Sleeping Bear sand dunes and the Manitou Islands, making their eternal mark on their new home.
“You are the future of America. You are the promise of America,” Green said.
Mick Dedvukaj, the District Director of the Detroit District of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services explained how U.S. citizenship is unique in that this right is not based on bloodline or ancestry, but “requires only loyalty to her”. Conceding that the topic of immigration is currently a political football, Dedvukaj added, “this swearing in of new citizens is not controversial, it is the most American thing we do.”
Cecilia Molina Espinoza from Mexico City articulated why she was proud to call herself an American.
“My family has always dreamed of becoming U.S. citizens. It’s the land of the free. This country has given me the opportunities I dreamed of, to study what I want and have the job I want.”
After the naturalization ceremony, Espinoza and the new Americans embarked to fulfill their “pursuit of happiness” along with thousands of July tourists. The Singh family headed for Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. Others checked out the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb. One family had lunch at the Good Harbor Grill in Glen Arbor.
“You are now part of the story of Sleeping Bear,” the National Lakeshore’s new superintendent Scott Tucker told the new Americans, most of whom were visiting this park for the first time. “Two hundred years from now your family can come here and know that right here is where their journey as Americans officially began.”
Tucker offered each new American a complimentary one-year pass to visit the Sleeping Bear Dunes as well as a commemorative “passport” to the nation’s 142 national parks — what he called “America’s best idea” referring to the Ken Burns documentary on our national parks.
As part of the National Park Service’s centennial celebration, the Park and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services department are holding 100 immigrant naturalization ceremonies in 100 different parks nationwide in order to invite a new generation of Americans to experience their national treasures.
“I can’t think of places more appropriate to welcome a new generation of American citizens than national parks,” National Park Service director Jonathan B. Jarvis said in a press release. “These parks, which are owned by all Americans, are not only places of stunning natural beauty and abundant wildlife, but across this country more than 400 national parks preserve our nation’s fascinating history and protect our rich cultural heritage. From the Aztec Ruins National Monument in New Mexico to Ellis Island in New York City, national parks ensure our nation’s artifacts and records are protected for generations to come.”
