The people gathering at Yosemite’s Glacier Point on Thursday morning won’t be your typical hikers and tourists. Forty-two people from 15 countries will stand before one of the park’s most spectacular views of Half Dome to pledge their allegiance to the U.S., becoming the country’s newest citizens.
Judge Jeremy Peterson, the magistrate for the U.S. District Court in Yosemite Valley, will swear them in. Park Superintendent Michael Reynolds will appear, and the park’s mounted patrol will act as color guards, a news release Wednesday said. And afterward, apple pie will be served.
Since 2006, national parks have served as memorable landscapes for naturalization ceremonies organized by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“These ceremonies have brought America’s next generation of immigrants to the natural, historical and cultural treasures that tell the American story,” Michael Connor, former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior wrote on the agency’s blog in 2016.
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