About 70 to become U.S. citizens

Friday, July 2, 2004 | 10:36 a.m.

"I understand the difference between today and tomorrow," Sarfaraz Latif said Thursday afternoon in his Las Vegas apartment.

"This is a government that looks after its citizens ... and I'm going to be one," he said.

Latif, from Pakistan, is one of about 70 people from 40 countries who will be sworn in as United States citizens today at the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse downtown. Last fiscal year, which for the federal government goes from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 3,214 new citizens were sworn in at the courthouse, said Sharon Rummery, spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Today's group includes 28 Mexicans, 25 Filipinos and 7 Cubans, Rummery said.

For the 27-year-old Latif, the moment will be a relief of sorts, as well as a step toward the higher income and education that draws millions to this country -- 16,000 of whom will become citizens nationwide over the next week.

The Pakistani-born computer science student, who spoke from his two-bedroom apartment in the shadow of the Strip while his 2-year-old son, Hadeed, played at his side, last week was reminded of the difference that citizenship can make.

On June 25, he returned to the United States after visiting his parents in Pakistan. When he arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, he was separated from his family, both of whom are already citizens. His wife, Safura, moved to the United States from Pakistan years before he did and his son was born here.

Airport immigration officials took his picture and fingerprints, while his family waited. About 20 minutes later, they were rejoined.

"It's uncomfortable, but you get used to it," he said.

But today, things will change.

"It will be good to be a citizen and not feel like an immigrant," Latif said.

Also, he said, it will be good to "have the sense someone cares about you -- somebody will look for me if something happens to me.

"With a Pakistani passport, nobody would care," he said.

Then, he said, there's the reason he came to the U.S. in the first place, and how becoming a citizen will move those plans forward.

"Obviously, there's the economic reasons," he said. Latif is in his last semester as an undergraduate in computer science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He studies while his wife works as a cashier at the Strip's Boardwalk hotel-casino only blocks away from their modest apartment.

"It's a good opportunity for me ... and will help me get a better job hopefully," Latif said of becoming a citizen.

The day before he became an American, Latif thought back on his brief life here and noted one thing that seemed strange to him.

"I used to think, everybody says it's a free country, but I almost feel like it's too much freedom here -- people don't care for each other and children turn 18 and then they don't see their parents for years," he said.

"That surprises me."

The thing Latif appreciates most about life in the U.S. is "law and order.

"I really like that," he said.

As for his July 4th plans, Latif said he and his family "will go see some fireworks" -- like so many other Americans.