Celebrate Citizenship Day; Share Your Stories

Citizenship Day, also known as Constitution Day, commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787 and recognizes the millions of immigrants who have made the decision to become American citizens ̶ “Americans by choice.”

Citizenship Day, also known as Constitution Day, commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787 and recognizes the millions of immigrants who have made the decision to become American citizens ̶ “Americans by choice.”

To mark Citizenship Day, Sept. 17, 2013, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas welcomed 25 new U.S. citizens during a special Constitution Day and Citizenship Day naturalization ceremony at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.  Sree Sreenivasan, Chief Digital Officer for The Metropolitan Museum of Art—who recently became a U.S. citizen—gave the keynote speech. Sreenivasan is one of 42 immigrants recognized in the latest edition of Carnegie Corporation’s “Pride of America” ad on July 4.

Our “Great Immigrants: The Pride of America” web site celebrates the achievements of men and women representing a wide variety of fields and backgrounds who have chosen to become American citizens. As an immigrant himself, Andrew Carnegie’s deeply held belief was that the strength of American democracy and the progress of our society are enriched by the contributions of immigrants.

Carnegie Corporation of New York continues to honor Andrew Carnegie’s legacy by supporting efforts to advance immigrant civic integration through such projects as The New Americans Campaign, which, in partnership with other nonprofits, foundations, and legal service providers, aims to modernize the ways in which lawful permanent residents embark on the naturalization process. The New Americans Campaign website includes naturalization resources and a link to the free CitizenshipWorks app. The app provides a list of free legal aid providers to assist with the citizenship process, and just introduced a new zip-code search to allow those eligible for citizenship to find legal help.

This Citizenship Day we salute citizens by choice. Do you have an immigrant story to share? Share it on the Great Immigrants site!