WASHINGTON, D.C.–Constitution Day is a day to celebrate the creation of the document that governs the United States and makes America a free country. For 28 people in Washington, D.C., it was their first day as American citizens.
Vice Pres. Mike Pence offered congratulations and admonition to the new citizens, sworn in at the White House.
“You’ll participate in many debates in American life, including debates over immigration in this country,” he said. “As you experienced today, make no mistake about it, the United States of America is the most welcoming and generous system of immigration in the history of the world, and you proved that again today.”
He noted that three quarters of a million people took the oath to become citizens last year.
Pence advised everyone taking the oath to study what they promised to defend, acknowledging the signing of the Constitution, 232 years ago.
“It was an extraordinary moment not just in American history, it was an extraordinary moment in human history and today it’s your Constitution,” he said. I want to encourage each and every one of you to study it, understand it. Study the genius of the American founding. Study the rights and liberties that are now yours, and live out your promise today to support and defend the Constitution as Americans.”
Pence told the story of one of the immigrants who came to Indiana as a teenager and a foreign exchange student from Germany.
“She received some warm, Midwestern hospitality that we’re known for out my way. Lived up there near Lake Michigan. No wonder she wanted to come back. And, today Monika Irchenhauser is an American.”
