25 Immigrants Are Now American Citizens

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Amid Trump promises to once again slam the door on immigration from seven Mideast countries, 25 immigrants became new American citizens on Monday.

"The immigrant's story is America's story," said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. "It's our nation's heritage and our greatest source of vitality and prosperity."

Immigrants like Faraz Baluch from Pakistan.

Baluch has been in America since 1991, but was motivated to become a citizen by the election debate over immigration.

"Finally, last year, when all this stuff was going through, through the election and stuff, every single vote counts, every single voice counts. At that time, I decided let's go ahead and sign up, Baluch said.

Meanwhile, President Trump is preparing a new executive order on immigration to replace the previous one, which has since been overturned by the courts. It's expected to be announced this week.

Under the new order, citizens from the seven Muslim-majority countries will still be prohibited from coming to America. It will, however, exempt those with green cards and travelers already en route to the U.S. when the order is issued.

But Baluch doesn't think the blanket ban is good policy.

"Just kind of banning it, it needs to be more thoughtful in regards to it."

Additionally, a multi-faith Chicago coalition denounced Trump's plans to reimpose the immigration ban, and ramp up deportations.

"People of faith will not be part of this national mistake," said Fr. Corey Brost, Children of Abraham. "We will not victimize the weak, we will not stigmatize our brothers and sisters who are Muslim, we will not tear apart families because they are not documented."

Internal memos show that the President plans to hire an additional 15,000 agents to enforce immigration laws. However, there's reportedly no plans to move against the so-called DREAMers, which are children brought to American by undocumented parents.

There are no plans to involve the National Guard either, which has been rumored.

Read more
f

We and our partners use cookies to understand how you use our site, improve your experience and serve you personalized content and advertising. Read about how we use cookies in our cookie policy and how you can control them by clicking Manage Settings. By continuing to use this site, you accept these cookies.