Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco/San Mateo counties) presided over a special naturalization ceremony on Friday to honor the completion of the San Bruno Compaction Project, a collection of family history documents of particular importance to Asian American communities.
The two million files, all kept at the San Bruno Library, document the cases of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from China, Japan, the Philippines and other Asian countries who passed through the Bay Area.
“As a country of immigrants, this is a fitting way for us to celebrate the preservation of historic documents of former immigrants and at the same time create documents for brand new citizens of the United States,” Speier said. “Immigration is the foundation of the American Dream. That was true in the past and will be true in the future.”
During the ceremony, 12 people from nine countries were be sworn in as U.S. citizens at the event.
