Wendy Hassan, formerly of Colombia, receives her naturalization papers and a flag at the first swearing-in of new citizens inside the walls of Fort Caroline National Memorial Wednesday. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services partnered with the National Park Service to offer the program for 18 new U.S. citizens who hail from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Eritrea, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Kenya, Morocco, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa and Ukraine.
“We plan on having more ceremonies here,” said Jacksonville Field Office Director Katherine Baranowski of citizenship and immigration services. “The Park Service said that the Kingsley Plantation is also available for the ceremony, so we’ll see how the program develops in the future.”