<< Previous   of   Next >> For the Enterprise/MATTHEW WILLIAMS  (click to enlarge) Gilberto Ramirez helps his son, Santiago, ride a toy horse Jan. 21 in Mountlake Terrace. Gilberto, a legal immigrant, is preparing to take his citizenship test by taking weekly classes at the local library. For the Enterprise/MATTHEW WILLIAMS  (click to enlarge) Gilberto Ramirez, a legal immigrant originally from Mexico City, listens to Chuck Brewer during one of the weekly citizenship classes he attends at the Mountlake Terrace Library. For the Enterprise/MATTHEW WILLIAMS  (click to enlarge) Norman Wanjao, center-left, originally from Kenya, attends a citizenship class at Mountlake Terrace Library on Jan. 7. For the Enterprise/MATTHEW WILLIAMS  (click to enlarge) Gilberto Ramirez, a legal immigrant originally from Mexico City, listens to Chuck Brewer during one of the weekly citizenship classes he attends at the Mountlake Terrace Library. For the Enterprise/MATTHEW WILLIAMS  (click to enlarge) Gilberto Ramirez, a legal immigrant originally from Mexico City, listens to Chuck Brewer during one of the weekly citizenship classes he attends at the Mountlake Terrace Library.

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CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, News editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

The path to citizenship

MLT Library offers classes for hopeful immigrants

By Oscar Halpert
For the Enterprise

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Thirteen years ago, a friend told Gilberto Ramirez about all the money he made working for a commercial fishing operation in Alaska.

Job opportunities were scarce in Ramirez's native Mexico City and his friend's story intrigued him. He told Ramirez the fishing company was based in Seattle.

“I asked him, ‘Can I go to Seattle with you?'” Ramirez says.

Arriving illegally in Washington, Ramirez applied for a job on a fishing boat in Alaska. He says he got cold feet, however, after hearing stories about federal immigration officers raiding illegals in Alaska.

In their search for a better life, thousands of foreigners come to the United States every year. Some arrive because they've been persecuted in their home countries; others come because they want a better job than they can find where they live. Ramirez is one of a small group of immigrants from Iran, Kenya, Southeast Asia and Canada who meet weekly for a free citizenship class at the Mountlake Terrace Library.

Their goal is the same: to pass the citizenship examination that gives them the right to vote and other rights accorded native-born Americans.

‘A better life'

Instead of heading to Alaska, Ramirez found work at a Seattle Mexican restaurant. For years, he worked 16 hour days at two restaurants, then left to work in construction.

Nearly seven years ago, Ramirez married his English-as-a-second-language class assistant, a native of Guam. He got his green card, bought a home in Mountlake Terrace and is now legally allowed to work in the U.S.

Though transition to life in the United States was often rocky, he's happy he took the leap of faith. Now Ramirez, 41, wants to become a U.S. citizen.

“We're trying to find a better life,” he says.

Becoming a citizen can take years, navigating through the federal process. Newcomers to the U.S. first receive visas — authorization to be here for reasons that vary from educational to work-related.

To stay beyond the length of their visa, they can either apply for an extension or for a document known as a green card, which gives immigrants the legal right to live and work in the U.S.

A green card involves passing a medical examination and filling out a detailed application for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that since 2001 has overseen immigration.

More than a green card

Getting the card, however, isn't the same as becoming an American citizen.

That process, known as naturalization, involves passing an examination in which applicants are tested for their knowledge of civics and their ability to carry on a basic conversation, read and write in English. Applicants must correctly answer six out of 10 questions that federal examiners cull from a list of 100. It costs $675 to take the test.

“They might ask, ‘Do you know what deportation means?'” says Jim Hodges, citizenship project coordinator for the St. James Cathedral ESL program in Seattle. “They want to make sure the applicants fully understand the questions and they're not just memorizing (them).”

Hodges is a native of Great Britain who arrived in the United States in 1994 on a student visa and eventually married an American.

He oversees citizenship classes through the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle including the 90-minute class in Mountlake Terrace, one of the few places in Snohomish County that prepares future citizens for the exam.

Chuck Brewer, 57, teaches the class.

“The United States was kind of a revolutionary idea,” he tells the students. “America was designed as a democracy where the people were going to rule themselves.”

Brewer, who runs his own computer sales and marketing business, says he volunteered to teach the class when it started last fall and was inspired by his wife, head librarian Rosie Brewer, who started a program teaching computer skills to beginners.

“I was very proud of what she was doing teaching all these people skills they'd never had before,” he said. “When she mentioned they were looking for volunteers to teach citizenship, I thought, ‘I guess I can do that.'”

Oscar Halpert writes for the Herald of Everett.