The faces of immigrants becoming citizens are what the American dream is all about

Since 1965, the process of becoming an American citizen has been governed by the Immigration and Nationality Act enacted in June of that year. Previously, naturalization — the procedure by which foreign nationals are granted U.S. citizenship — was governed by a complicated legacy of legislative acts and constitutional amendments, many of which were predicated on race-based exclusion.

Historically, legislation has largely targeted the scapegoat immigrant groups of its time. The Naturalization Act of 1798 was a Federalist-led initiative to weaken Democratic-Republican rivals’ immigrant-heavy voter base. The act increased residency requirements for citizenship applications from five to fifteen years—affecting mostly Irish and French immigrants until it was repealed in 1802.

With the Civil War, veterans became eligible for citizenship after only a year of residence. And the Fourteenth Amendment, passed in 1868, ostensibly granted citizenship to all domestically born people, regardless of race (though in practice it would be another 30 years before a Supreme Court decision included residents of Asian descent).

While the Naturalization Act of 1870 cleared a path to citizenship for “aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent,” 1917’s Literacy Act took anti-Asian nativism a step further by barring immigration from the Asia-Pacific Zone entirely. The McCarran–Walter Act of 1917 also maintained strict country-specific quotas. But with Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the 1965 immigration bill, the demographics of America would never be the same. The bill ended quotas based on national origin and effectively leveled the playing field of a system which had privileged northern Europeans since its inception.

Naturalization ceremonies take place across the country, in venues ranging from small courtrooms to vast sports stadiums. In all cases, applicants are asked to hand-in their permanent residency cards before taking the Oath of Allegiance, after which they will be handed a certificate of naturalization. For many new citizens this moment will resonate for the rest of their lives.

As Austrian-American actor Arnold Schwarzenegger recounted in 2004, “As long as I live, I will never forget that day 21 years ago when I raised my hand and took the oath of citizenship. Do you know how proud I was? I was so proud that I walked around with an American flag around my shoulders all day long.”