Tompkins County Clerk Maureen Reynolds is the first to admit that her job can be tough.
“Every day I work in a courthouse, I run a DMV,” Reynolds said. “You know, they're not the happiest jobs every day.”
Reynolds said days when she gets to host naturalization ceremonies are different.
Naturalization ceremonies are the final step for people completing the citizenship process in the United States. Ceremonies can be performed at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offices, or locally in judicial ceremonies.
“These are happy days. I come home and my cheeks hurt from smiling,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds has been a part of nearly 100 naturalization ceremonies.
As she is eyeing retirement, she wishes she could have done more.
However, up until recently it looked like local ceremonies would stop altogether. Last November, USCIS told the clerk’s office that the county’s judicial ceremonies were cancelled indefinitely.
At the time, a spokesperson for USCIS told WSKG that upstate counties did “not meet the statutory requirements to conduct naturalization ceremonies.” County staff said they were not informed what those unmet requirements were.
Later that month, Republican Congressman Mike Lawler said ceremonies were back on. Tompkins County did not get confirmation that ceremonies were restored until early April, when all three of their ceremonies were rescheduled.
One of those ceremonies was at the Tompkins County Public Library, where nine people took the oath of allegiance earlier this month.
For many, the naturalization ceremony is the final step in a long journey.
Bettina Podkaminer moved here from Germany in 1981. She met her husband in the United States. She now lives in Trumansburg and has children and grandchildren.
She said that citizenship feels like a safety net.
“It's good in these insecure times to know that you are a citizen,” Podkaminer said.
She now has citizenship in both Germany and the U.S.
Podkaminer said she’s excited to vote and serve on a jury.
“I'm not sure that I'm ready to run for office or anything, but I definitely want to be part of being a responsible Democrat.”
She is not the only new citizen excited to hit the polls.
Maxime Caly’s first act as a US citizen was to register to vote.
“I was born in France, and then my dad's job brought us to the United States,” Caly told WSKG.
He returned to France as a child, but eventually ended up back in the U.S. Caly said he’s always had good experiences here.
Then in 2015, while completing an internship for his masters in Colorado, he found yet another reason to stick around.
“I met Anna, and then it just kind of rolled one step into the other,” Caly said
Now Anna is his wife, and today, Caly is a U.S citizen.
“I think it's important to know that people coming here, you know, they just want the best for themselves and for others, and we're just all here trying to live our best lives.”
