Columnist Susan Snyder: Group shows impeccable citizenship

Tuesday, July 3, 2001 | 9:23 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder @ lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

The 77 men and women filed into Courtroom 6B of the Lloyd D. George United States Courthouse dressed in Sunday clothes, even though it was a hot Friday toward the end of June.

They represented Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, England, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Israel, Korea, Laos, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Thailand, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.

They stood solemnly before the judge for whom Las Vegas' federal courthouse is named and swore to "absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity" to the countries in which they had been born.

Foreigners became countrymen and women of one nation, indivisible.

Every Friday, 75 to 80 people from all over the world step into a federal courtroom downtown and pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Think about that as you toss a burger onto the grill tomorrow and celebrate our independence. There are people willing to renounce the lands of their ancestors because being here is better.

Looking around the courtroom at faces in varying shades of tan and beige, it was hard to imagine what that felt like. Those of us born into a nation of choices don't ever have to make that one.

We get to stay here even if we don't know how many senators Congress has, what the first 10 amendments of the Constitution are called or what one issue the Civil War was fought over. (In some communities that's still up for grabs.)

"This is always a very special privilege for the judge who presides over this ceremony, because everybody leaves the room happy," U.S. District Court Judge Lloyd George told the people he was about to make legal U.S. citizens.

They pledged to defend and serve the United States. They recited the Pledge of Allegiance from memory. Some held back tears as Patricia Gray, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court executive, sang "America the Beautiful" and "God Bless the U.S.A."

But it was the speech by Nevada's U.S. Marshal Jose Troncoso that sent everyone digging for Kleenex.

"I know exactly how you feel," Troncoso said. "I wanted to live the American dream just like yourselves."

Troncoso told how his parents moved here from Mexico with nine children and third-grade educations. He spoke of working hard to become a North Las Vegas police officer and later the department's chief.

"I raised up my hand and became a U.S. Marshal," Troncoso said, his voice breaking with tears. "This thing doesn't happen in other countries. Where else can a kid who doesn't speak English come to a country and progress to this level?

"Don't take it for granted because people before us worked to give us this privilege," he said. "And that's what it's all about -- all of us together working hard and passing good things along."

Luis Salcedo, 21, of Mexico, had been a U.S. citizen for less than five minutes, but he summed up our forefathers' hopes in seven words:

"I came here for a better future."

Just like those guys 225 years ago.

With liberty and justice for all.