Kim-Tenorio shares her journey to obtain citizenship

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona, front row extreme left, Superior Court Associate Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio, front row extreme right, and Immigration Services Officer Teresa Vega-Murrieta, behind Kim-Tenorio, gather for a group photo with 26 new U.S. citizens during the naturalization ceremony in federal court yesterday morning. (Ferdie de la Torre)

Superior Court Associate Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio yesterday advised the newest naturalized U.S. citizens to embrace the new privileges and rights they are entitled to as Americans and urged them to be responsible Americans.

“In our families, we strive to improve ourselves as a member of the family and to protect each other. You must do the same for America, your new family,” Kim-Tenorio said, urging the newly naturalized citizens to be a part of improving America and never forgetting that they must protect this country.

As guest speaker at the naturalization ceremony for 26 persons yesterday in federal court, Kim-Tenorio also shared her journey to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.

The 26 new U.S. citizens originally came from the Philippines, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, and Thailand.

Kim-Tenorio said yesterday’s naturalization ceremony is special because the CNMI celebrates the 41st anniversary of the Covenant this week. The Covenant is a mutually negotiated instrument that made the Northern Marianas part of the U.S. and granted American citizenship to residents.

In 1976, the U.S. Congress approved the Covenant to establish the CNMI in political union with the U.S. On Nov. 4, 1986, pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 5564, the Covenant was fully implemented, allowing residents to begin receiving their U.S. passports.

Kim-Tenorio pointed out that receiving a U.S. passport was something tangible for residents to show that they were now part of the American family.

Kim-Tenorio said the late governor Eloy S. Inos was first persons to receive this tangible instrument of U.S. citizenship. In a commemorative ceremony in Washington, D.C. two days after the Covenant went into effect, Inos became the first from the CNMI to receive a U.S. passport.

The judge herself recalled her experience in obtaining citizenship. Originally from South Korea, she arrived on Saipan when she was only 3 years old. She remembered sitting in a packed classroom with others, taking the written test to become a citizen, then being interviewed some time after that.

“I’m not sure what I expected my interview process to be like, but it was not what I expected,” Kim-Tenorio said.

Kim-Tenorio waited in the lobby with many others, young and old, who were all waiting to be interviewed. She was not nervous when she got there, but as she waited for her turn, she got more and more nervous.

“Perhaps it was the sheer act of waiting…or maybe it was the other interviewees memorizing facts about the United States, like who won the World Series that year. Which team won the Super Bowl? What are American’s favorite meals? Which movie won the Academy Award that year?” she said.

How was she going to answer those questions when she does not like baseball and is not a moviegoer?

Kim-Tenorio said that when she sat down with the officer, the officer asked her for her name and a couple of other questions. She said the officer looked at her and stated, “You speak English very well.” Kim-Tenorio had just graduated college with an English degree a couple of months prior to that interview.

“I said thank you and the officer said, ‘Okay,’ then…’Goodbye.’ That was the end of my interview,” she recalled.

Kim-Tenorio said she could not wait for the mass swearing in ceremony as she was on her way to law school so she asked if she could be sworn in privately and immediately. The officer told her to go ahead and find a federal judge.

Kim-Tenorio drove to the federal courthouse a few blocks away and began knocking on the door of every federal judge’s chambers until a “very nice” lady opened the door. She told her situation that she needed to be sworn in right away.

“The lady spoke to the judge, who agreed to swear me in that afternoon. …I don’t think I fully grasped what the ordinary cold Michigan day would turn out to mean to me. I was not ready for the flood of emotions I would feel as I recited the oath,” she recalled.

“I remember my heart swelling, instantly feeling patriotic, feeling free, feeling privileged, and wanting to be American,” Kim-Tenorio said.

By wanting to be an American, she meant she was excited to register to vote, to serve as a juror.

“I was a little less excited about paying taxes, but even that signified to me as being American. I was excited to participate…to be part of the process,” the judge added.

For Marissa Villas Moses, one of the 26 newest citizens, she is excited as she could now able to vote, among other rights and privileges.

Moses, who hails from San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines, arrived in 1991 on Saipan, where she worked at the front desk of a hotel. She got married in 1993 to IT&E’s Rex Moses. They have a 19-year-old son, who is now taking B.S. Biology in Philadelphia.

For Hong Xiang Zheng, 62, Tinian Dynasty project manager, obtaining citizenship means he could now travel anywhere in the world and he can now vote.

Zheng, who came from Fujian, China, first arrived in 1989 on Tinian, where he worked as a farmer. It was his son, who became a U.S. citizen, who petitioned him for a green card.

Aside from Moses and Zheng, the others who took their oaths as citizens were Maria Fe Bederio Babauta, Catalina Isip Benavente, Anita Q. De Vero, Tita Travilla Gabredo, Seung Woo Kang, Jae Hong Kim, Min Soo Kim, Young Mi Kim, Shirley Mejia Klokow, Tai Fu Law, Marissa Pascual Mafnas, Merlyn Manicad Manglona, and Marlina Bibat Mantua.

The others were Yi Fan Hsieh Moore, Dennis Jogno Muhi, Marlita Vila Ogo, Luisito Nator Oxales, Ofelia Asuncion Pangelinan, Li Wei Yang Pua, Phanee U. Regan, Lishao Wang Taisague, Rowell Deang Tolentino, Lai Yee Wong, and Yu Zheng.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona swore them in.