Every weekday at 3 p.m. in a modest Mount Laurel office, dozens of N.J. residents raise their right hands and take an oath of allegiance to become new U.S. citizens.
MOUNT LAUREL -- Every weekday at 3 p.m., in a modest office that sits on the end of one of the dozens of nondescript corporate centers tucked behind bustling Route 73, grown men and women are brought to tears of joy as their long-awaited dreams become a reality.
The Fellowship Road office is home to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Field Office, which ends every work day with a naturalization ceremony -- a moving event that caps the long journey residents from throughout the state have made in a quest to call themselves an American citizen.
"We never get tired of it," the office's director, Nieves Cardinale, said at the end of a particularly special ceremony on Thursday afternoon. "This is what it's all about."
In addition to the 27 new citizens and family members who filled the room was a special guest, one who went through the same emotional journey more than 48 years ago.
Catherine Califano, of Long Branch, came to America from her hometown of Glasgow, Scotland when she was just 19. She made the journey across the Atlantic on the S.S. United States -- a majestic passenger ship that now sits docked at a Delaware River pier in South Philadelphia awaiting restoration -- all on her own with the aim of starting a new life in America.
When Califano took her oath of allegiance to the United States on June 12, 1967, she received a full-sized U.S. flag to mark the moment. Califano treasured it for decades, but as she prepared to pass it on to her 52-year-old son, she realized it was not her flag, and it instead bore the name of another man who took the oath with her on that day many years ago.
So she reached out to her congressman, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, to find her own and was instead given an even higher honor as Pallone arranged for a U.S. flag to fly over the Capitol in her name and in celebration of her nearly five decades of citizenship.
She was presented with that flag, protected inside a wood and glass case, at Thursday's daily ceremony, and was given the additional privilege of handing each new U.S. citizen their own small American flag after they received their certificates of citizenship.
"It was an honor," said Califano, who admitted to being a little nervous and shaky during the stirring ceremony.
Many of the more than two dozen new Americans in the room were just as overwhelmed as the ceremony got underway. Every one of them, after meeting the required waiting periods, submitted their applications for citizenship just over three months ago and spent Thursday morning taking their citizenship tests and going through the final screening process.
The big moment began with a video of photographs depicting the history of immigrants throughout the country's history before an official read aloud each of the 18 different home countries of the new citizens. After standing when their country was called, they each raised their right hand, repeated the oath of citizenship, and wrapped up the day by watching a video message from President Barack Obama welcoming them as fellow Americans.
"I was very emotional," said Aura Alegria after the ceremony. "I've been here for 20 years, and finally I am able to say I'm a citizen."
The 39-year-old Somers Point resident came to America from the Dominican Republic with her family when she was just 17, and watched the rest of her family become citizens over the years. She was joined by her husband Luis and 2-year-old son Gabriel for her own big moment on Thursday and was overjoyed about the fact she can now share the same rights Gabriel and her 14-year-old son Hector have as natural-born citizens.
"Now [Luis] and I can vote together," said Alegria.
The ability to vote was a highlight for many of the new citizens naturalized on Thursday, and one that Mount Laurel resident Indira Mehta, who has lived in the country for 10 years, doesn't take lightly.
"Now I feel that I'm part of this country," said Mehta. "I feel like I am home."
Michelle Caffrey may be reached at mcaffrey@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ShellyCaffrey. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.