25 become U.S. citizens at naturalization ceremony at Erie Federal Courthouse

Staff report

December 17, 2021 at 12:05 PM·2 min read

More than two dozen new United States citizens were welcomed at a naturalization ceremony Friday at the federal courthouse in Erie.

Twenty-five people from 12 countries took the naturalization oath, received citizenship certificates and heard from local speakers. The countries of origin represented were Bhutan, Cameroon, Colombia, Eritrea, Grenada, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Mexico, Pakistan Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Syria.

Hailing from 12 countries, 25 new U.S. citizens are shown Friday following a citizenship and naturalization ceremony at U.S. District Court in Erie. Presiding over the ceremony (shown at center, right) was U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter. Also in attendance was assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Trabold (center), and Erie Mayor Joe Schember (far right). The new citizens shown here are: Hussam Muhi Eddin Alhabash, Syria; Sajjad Hussein Al-Rasheed, Iraq; Muna Mahmoud Alsaleh, Syria; Hazem Ali Alslibi, Syria; Yoel Mehari Asgedom, Eritrea; Chhatra Bahadur Khadka, Bhutan; Orlandrew Eion Dave Danzell, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Mohamad Samir Fado, Syria; Divine Afese Forteh Ngochi, Cameroon; Maya Dhan Gurung, Bhutan; Hasan Ibrahim Aliwad, Syria; Nicole Leslyn John-Danzell, Grenada; Jwan Hasan Kari, Syria; Miar Yaser Katoosh, Syria; Carlos Andres Mora Rangel, Colombia; Suraj Pradhan, Bhutan; Roshan Rai, Bhutan; Andrey Mus Sanova, Indonesia; Senait Andemeskel Sasinos, Eritrea; Omran Zakaria Sawas, Syria; Divya Anna Shaji, India; Ashika Tamang, Bhutan; Silvina Valdez Montes, Mexico; Muhammad Younas, Pakistan; Zozan Mohammad Amin Zainal, Syria.

The new citizens are:

Hussam Muhi Eddin Alhabash, Syria
Sajjad Hussein Al-Rasheed, Iraq
Muna Mahmoud Alsaleh, Syria
Hazem Ali Alslibi, Syria
Yoel Mehari Asgedom, Eritrea
Chhatra Bahadur Khadka, Bhutan
Orlandrew Eion Dave Danzell, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Mohamad Samir Fado, Syria
Divine Afese Forteh Ngochi, Cameroon
Maya Dhan Gurung, Bhutan
Hasan Ibrahim Aliwad, Syria
Nicole Leslyn John-Danzell, Grenada
Jwan Hasan Kari, Syria
Miar Yaser Katoosh, Syria
Carlos Andres Mora Rangel, Colombia
Suraj Pradhan, Bhutan
Roshan Rai, Bhutan
Andrey Mus Sanova, Indonesia
Senait Andemeskel Sasinos, Eritrea
Omran Zakaria Sawas, Syria
Divya Anna Shaji, India
Ashika Tamang, Bhutan
Silvina Valdez Montes, Mexico
Muhammad Younas, Pakistan
Zozan Mohammad Amin Zainal, Syria

Presiding over the ceremony was U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter. Presenting the new citizens was assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Trabold. Erie Mayor Joe Schember gave an address during the ceremony.

Hearings are scheduled to take place at the Federal Courthouse in Pittsburgh at 10 a.m. on the third Friday of each month and at least twice per year in the Erie and Johnstown divisions of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Ceremonies are held in Erie about 10 times each year.

For information on the naturalization process, visit the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website.

Take a sample citizenship quiz that contains some of the same questions today's new citizens answered.

The standard naturalization oath:

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: US Citizenship: 25 in Erie become naturalized U.S. citizens

Reuters
Poland to push for common funding for defence during EU presidency
Poland will make joint European Union financing for defence its priority during its six-month presidency of the 27-nation bloc, arguing that security is a common European good, Poland's Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski said on Wednesday. The European Commission has estimated the cost of boosting the EU's defence capabilities at 500 billion euros ($525 billion) or more over the next 10 years. EU finance ministers will discuss possible financing models in April in Warsaw, Domanski said.
CBS News
Kabul explosion kills Afghan Taliban regime's minister for refugees
Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, a minister in Afghanistan's de-facto Taliban government and a member of a notorious family, was among those killed in an explosion in Kabul.
Associated Press
TikTok files challenge against Canadian government order to dissolve its business in the country
TikTok has challenged a Canadian government order to shut down the Chinese video-sharing app's business operations in the country that was imposed over national security concerns. The company said Tuesday that it filed an application for a judicial review with the Federal Court in Vancouver on Dec. 5, which seeks to set aside the order for TikTok to wind-up and cease its business in Canada. The Canadian federal government last month announced it was ordering the dissolution of TikTok Technology Canada Inc. after a national security review of its Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd.
Reuters
ICC suspect ordered murder and rape in Sudan's Darfur, judges hear
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor told judges on Wednesday that the suspect in the first trial examining war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region two decades ago was a feared militia leader who enthusiastically ordered atrocities including murder, rape and pillaging. Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, who is charged with overseeing thousands of pro-government Janjaweed fighters during the peak of fighting from 2003-2004, has pleaded not guilty and his defence has argued that he is not the militia leader also known by the nom de guerre Ali Kushayb. In his closing statement, prosecutor Karim Khan said that during the two-year trial, prosecution witnesses had given "detailed accounts of mass murder, torture, rape, targeting of civilians, burning and pillaging of entire villages" and that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Yahoo Finance
Macy's sales paint mixed picture as delayed Q3 results land
As activist pressure builds, Macy's is looking to convince shareholders its Bold New Chapter strategy is strong enough to propel it into the future.
CBS News
How mafias cash in by preying on hotels, restaurants in Italy
Organized crime groups preying on vulnerable companies are taking home $3.5 billion a year, a research institute warned.
Associated Press
Macy's offers a mixed outlook after reporting third quarter profit and sales declines
Macy's reported a decline in profits and sales for its third quarter with many customers of the department store chain continuing to divert spending to basics like groceries amid elevated prices. The company, which also owns upscale Bloomingdale’s and the cosmetics chain Bluemercury, raised its annual sales expectations, but lowered profit projections citing the uncertain economic environment. Shares of Macy's Inc., based in New York City, tumbled 9% before the opening bell.
Reuters
Krispy Kreme says cybersecurity incident is impacting online orders in US
Shares of the company were down about 2% in premarket trading. Krispy Kreme said the expected costs related to the incident, including the loss of revenue from digital sales, are "reasonably likely to have a material impact" on its results of operations.
CNN
Renovations have left Rome in chaos. Now 35 million visitors are about to descend
Rome is racing to finish restoration works as huge numbers of religious pilgrims are poised to descend on the Vatican to celebrate the Catholic Church’s 2025 jubilee year. Not everyone is sure the city can handle it.
Associated Press
Only about 2 in 10 Americans approve of Biden's pardon of his son Hunter, an AP-NORC poll finds
Only about 2 in 10 Americans approve of President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter after earlier promising he would do no such thing, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The survey found that a relatively small share of Americans “strongly” or “somewhat” approve of the pardon, which came after the younger Biden was convicted on gun and tax charges. The Democratic president had said repeatedly that he would not use his pardon power for the benefit of his family, and the White House continued to insist, even after Republican Donald Trump’s election win in November, that Biden's position had not changed — until it suddenly did.
CNN
Democratic governors quietly prep extensive plans to counter Trump
Diplomatic and depressed as they have been in public, a small group of Democratic governors are deep into behind-the-scenes preparations and deliberations over how to balance the politics of pushing back on what they are expecting from President-elect Donald Trump’s next turn in the White House.
NBC News
Inflation in the U.S. remains stuck, and Trump's economic plans are only adding to the uncertainty
Is inflation in the U.S. getting better or worse?
NBC News
Dealing corpses from a Las Vegas strip mall: A look inside the shadowy U.S. body trade
Obteen Nassiri lost his chiropractor license and started dealing bodies. His company, Med Ed Labs, faced scandals, including complaints that he mishandled human remains.
NBC News
Chuck Todd: Is the rise of the independents coming? An experiment is brewing in a key battleground
While most of Washington is obsessed with either the reality show that is President-elect Donald Trump's transition or the hand-wringing and blame-gaming over Democrats' election loss, a potentially critical political storyline is brewing in Michigan.
USA TODAY
In Luigi Mangione's Maryland hometown, questions swirl about an unlikely murder suspect
The 26-year-old charged with murder landed a data engineering job after an Ivy League education. It's unclear what changed for him and when.
AFP
Syria migrants eye 'peace' in Britain even after Assad's fall
Wrapped up against the cold in northern France, Syrian migrant Ali said that while he was delighted president Bashar al-Assad had been toppled, he was still determined to cross the sea to England.But Ali, who hails from the Syrian region of Daraa that in 2011 was the first to rise up against Assad and has been hoping to cross the Channel for two months, was undeterred.
AFP
Stocks struggle for direction before US inflation data
Stock markets struggled for direction Wednesday as traders awaited key US inflation data with the Federal Reserve expected to cut interest rates next week.Paris and Frankfurt stocks edged up awaiting Thursday's expected rate cut from the European Central Bank as it seeks to help boost eurozone growth.
CBS News
Kroger $24.6 billion purchase of Albertsons halted by federal judge
Merger would curtail competition for grocery shoppers, Oregon court finds in a decision that could derail the deal.
Associated Press
An explosion in the Afghan capital kills the Taliban refugee minister, officials say
A suicide bombing in the Afghan capital on Wednesday killed the Taliban refugee minister and two others, Interior Ministry officials said. The explosion struck inside the ministry, killing Khalil Haqqani, the refugee minister, officials said. Haqqani was the most high-profile casualty of a bombing in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power three years ago.
AFP
Netanyahu aide on trial in new case troubling Israeli PM
As the corruption trial of Benjamin Netanyahu resumed this week, Israel was gripped by another scandal involving the prime minister and the alleged leaking of classified documents.They allege he was in possession of the document from July, but only chose to leak it to the media in September, after the murder of six high-profile hostages by Hamas in late August, with the aim of alleviating public criticism of the prime minister.

Latest Stories