(gentle upbeat music) - Coming up in the next hour of local news on Arizona PBS, on a special July 4th edition, of Arizona Horizon, the personal journey of immigrants in their quest to become US citizens.

On Cronkite News, the heat and drought are impacting more than Arizona's human residence.

And on Break it Down, how the test to become a US citizen has evolved over the years.

That's all ahead in the next hour, on Arizona PBS.

[Narrator]- This hour of local news is made possible by contributions from the friends of PBS, members of your PBS station.

Thank you.

- Good evening, and welcome to this special Independence Day edition of Arizona Horizon.

I'm Ted Simons.

Tonight, we visit a number of Arizona's who have made the journey to become a US Citizen.

They all had different reasons for pursing their citizenship but they all say that they are proud now to call this country 'home'.

We begin with Emma Torres, who came to the US as an undocumented teenage migrant worker, who struggled to navigate the immigration system in order to gain her citizenship.

Emma Torres spoke to us about her journey and why she started an organization dedicated to helping other farm workers.

- [Ted] Emma Torres welcome to Arizona Horizon.

Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your story and your journey to becoming an American Citizen on this July 4th.

It sounds like it was quite a journey.

Talk to us about this.

[Emma]- Yes, thank you.

Thank you for inviting me to tell my story.

Well, I came from, I'm a Mexican immigrant.

I came to the United States when I was 11-years-old with my family who were farm workers, migrant farm workers.

My father was a grass worker when he was 18 years of age.

So, he was a 'grasero,' back then was the name, now it's grass workers.

It's two ways.

They count up early to do agriculture work and then they go back to their country.

Well, my father did that since he was very young.

He was recruited and that's how we were able to come to this country.

At that young age, he was able to get us to immigrate us to get our legal green card or residency card, and that's how my journey in the United States started.

- And you became a citizen in the late 90's.

I think 1999.

Talk about that process.

Was it difficult?

Was it frustrating?

- Well, I think the most frustrating part of becoming a citizen was just the process of learning.

You know, having to learn the application that there is a cost.

There is a cost to submit your application and, you know, sometimes people don't have the funding to be able to pay for that application.

And then you have to learn, you have to learn about the history of the United States.

You have to, you know, be prepared.

And a lot of people don't, I don't know if they don't have the time sometimes because we don't speak English.

We don't think that we will be able to understand everything that needs to be done to become citizens.

But then, before, when I started my process, you know, I didn't know that there was different organizations that are credited by USCIS immigration services to assist individuals to become citizens.

So, I made all my process by myself, but if I would have known there was an organization like, now Campesino is one of those credited organizations, it would have been a lot easier.

So, that was back then in the 1990's.

- Yeah, and I was just going to say, because of your journey, that sounds like it inspired you to help others now.

- Yes.

In many ways.

As I mentioned, I grew up in a farm worker and coming from a farm worker family, my parents went to school to first and second grade, so all they knew was field labor.

And when we came to the United States, that's pretty much how it started, I started working in agriculture when I was 13 years of age and then dropped school and didn't really speak the language until later on in life.

When I had a life tragedy where that really put me on a cross road of making a decision about what am I gonna do with my life and the life of my kids because I became a widow when I was 25 years of age.

And I had a three-week-old baby and a four-year-old baby that, you know, I didn't want them to be in that situation when they would grow up, so that really spiked my interest in learning more about how do I become a citizen?

How do I become better prepared to help my children?

My kids?

And in that process, I learned that there were, like, hundreds of other people that were in the same situation that I would be able to impact later on in my life, by learning to, you know, the processes in going to school.

I put myself through school.

I didn't think I would be able to achieve, you know, academic education cause I didn't finish my elementary school when I dropped out of school.

But then, thank god I was able to achieve first my GED then continue on my education.

And I wanted to be a social worker, and that's what I became.

I got my bachelor's degree and then my masters degree in social work.

So, in that process, in that journey I had been able to assist, you know, thousands of, you know, people from not just from Mexico and other parts where people immigrate from, but here in the United States.

We've reached thousands of people on a yearly basis that we assist them in the process of becoming citizens and achieving an education.

We believe in self-sustainability, you know, we are proud people.

We were raised to, you know, to sustain ourselves.

You know, people in agriculture, they work with some of the hardest, you know, some of the hardest industries, but because we believe in self sustainability, you know, we work and if we can't then we go to school.

And that's one of the things that now I help families to help their kids go to school, even if they work in the fields.

They don't know how to help their kids.

Now, we help them through some of programs.

We work with youth.

We help them, you know, understanding the educational system, and immigration system, economic system.

We work with holy literacy and many ways that we can help them really achieve that American dream that they came to this country for, just as we did.

- Indeed, and you have lived the American dream.

Real quickly, July 4th, what does it mean to you?

- Well, it means a lot.

How do I say, you know, I can't, you know, I'm a binational citizen because I was born in Mexico, but, you know, I have lived in this country most of my life.

And, you know, I had had a lot of opportunities here that, perhaps if I would have stayed in my country, I would have not had.

And that's something that I have learned to appreciate.

I have learned to help people to understand.

I know that, like I said, often times we hear about hardships.

We hear about everything that we go through, and yes, we go through a lot of things, so, you know, it's not easy.

But, again, many of us immigrants that come to this country, don't come to this country expecting it to be easy.

We just expect to have the opportunity.

Again, to achieve our American dream of, you know, being able to provide better for our kids.

To be free.

To have free expression.

And again, I love what I do.

I think that by touching the lives of many people that, you know, perhaps are in the same situation that I was several years ago.

You know, that is very self-fulfilling and that's what it means to me.

- Well, thank you so much Emma Torres for sharing your story.

We certainly appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

Thank you for thinking about me.

- And after the break, the story of a native Canadian's experience becoming a naturalized US citizen.

- [Narrator] She's the White House Correspondent for the PBS NewsHour.

- It has been a historic and traumatic week in Washington DC.

- [Narrator] Former reporter for The New York Times, Political Analyst for NBC, and multimedia journalist at USA Today.

- Join me this week and every week for a critical look at this week's top news stories.

- [Narrator] Yamiche Alcindor.

The new moderator of Washington Week.

- [Announcer] Friday nights at seven on Arizona PBS.

- Diane Brennan grew up in Alberta, Canada before moving to Arizona in 1997.

She decided she wanted to become a US citizen and went through what became a long process, before gaining citizenship.

We spoke to Diane Brennan about why it was important that she'd be able to call herself an American.

- [Ted] Diane Brennan, good to see you.

Thank you so much, I forgot to say it front, we used to work together at KTAR for many years.

It's good to see you again.

Thank you for this.

We're cheering people's stories who have come to America and become an American.

Before we get to the whole kit-n-kaboodle here, July 4th... What does it mean to you?

- Well, July 4th is Independence Day and when a lot of, when the country was created, and so it means a lot to me being a new, fairly new citizen.

I became a citizen in 2008.

And I'm from Canada originally.

And it just is a reminder each year of the opportunities that have been allotted to me for moving here and becoming a citizen.

- [Tom] What gotcha here?

What brought you here in the first place?

- Well, I did broadcasting in Canada.

I worked in radio.

And I was always fascinated with the US and the opportunities here.

We don't have the same opportunities in Canada.

Even in broadcasting and radio broadcasting, they have one, let's say, news station per city.

One country station.

One rock station.

One jazz station.

So, there's not the same competition as there is in the United States, and therefore, not as many jobs.

And it's always looked at a little bit as a higher talent level in the United States.

So, it's something that I have always wanted to, kind of, crack the American market with my broadcasting.

- So, you come here and it sounds like you had quite the journey working some temporary jobs, having green card issues and stuff like this, so talk to us about it.

- I did.

You know, a lot of people say, you know, just become a- just come to the United States and work and do it legally and I did do it legally.

There just was some issues in terms of the organization with immigration.

Not to talk badly about them.

They were doing the best they could, but my green card actually got lost in the mail.

So, you could not call them after a couple of days.

You had to actually wait an entire year before you contacted them.

I come to find out.

I went back to the immigration office, waited in line for hours, and they told me that they had mailed my green card out a couple of days prior after me being approved.

But, they had mailed it to an address that I had no idea where it was, so it kind of got lost.

So, - Yeah.

- [Diane] I had to reapply.

Pay all the fees.

And after all was said and done, it was about $15,000 without an attorney.

- [Ted] Oh my.

- So, that required getting constant background checks.

That lasted about six months or became old after six months.

So, I had to have background checks from the federal police in Canada.

From the local police.

Immigration medical checkups.

You have to make sure you have all your shots.

All that kind of stuff.

So, that always had to be up to date and that was kind of an expense, and in between my green card getting lost, and then- You know, even though immigration lost it and sent it to the wrong address, you kind of had to pay that.

You had to pay the fees again.

- So, all this is going on here.

Does this frustrate you to where you're thinking this isn't worth it, or does it inspire you to say I wanna do this come you know what or how high water?

- Well, it inspired me cause when you leave Canada you have the going-away party, right?

You're going to the United States.

You're starting off with a new life.

New career, Or not a new career, but, you know, new places of employment and everyone's kinda expecting you to be back home in a month.

You know how that goes.

So, I was out of it.

I am not going back home.

It was stressful because everyday I didn't know, first of all, if my green card was getting approved.

I moved down here on the word from immigration that it would three months to get my green card.

And it ended up taking a year and a half.

So, that incredibly stressful cause everyday you don't know if you're going to be accepted or, you know, you can't work.

I ended up having to survive, you know, being a pet-sitter.

Walking dogs, taking care of people's pets, and cleaning houses.

So, I actually- this lady was nice enough to give me a job cleaning her house.

And then when I actually got a green card, was legal, and got the job at KTAR, I was Ted's news anchor.

I don't know if everyone knows that.

I still continued to clean her home because- And everyone said what're you doing cleaning her house?

You know, you're the news anchor at KTAR.

And I said I was so grateful that this woman gave me job when I needed it that I cleaned her house 'til the day she passed.

And I was completely grateful for that.

Cause you're here, you're stressed, you have no way of making any income.

But it's not because I wanted to do it that way, it's just because of the paper work jam and the disorganization with immigration at that time, that that kinda happened.

So, I did move down here completely legally.

Canadians can stay down here for six months.

But you can't work.

It's a visitor's visa.

But I moved here on the basis that, you know, I would get it within three months and that just didn't happen - [Ted] Yeah.

Yeah.

So, I just kinda did what it took to get by.

- So last question here, Diane.

You are now an American citizen.

You've gone through the process, and it sounds like quite a process.

And you went through a lot.

- [Diane] Yes.

- But you are an American citizen.

I mean, you had a history with the country for quite a while beforehand.

But real quickly, did it feel different?

Did it change you?

Did something feel different?

- Oh.

At my immigration ceremony, everyone teased me like "You're gonna cry," and I said, well, "I'm not gonna cry."

Coming from Canada, it's not like you're coming from a third world country.

But during that ceremony to see people that were here for third world countries, I mean I had a hassle to become a citizen.

I could not imagine someone who spoke another language and going through the hoops that they'd have to go through, let's say in Mexico or a third world country, to even get their paperwork.

I had such a difficult time that I became really emotional during my ceremony just looking at everyone else cause they probably had it 1,000 times more difficult than I did.

Yeah, I'm really proud to be a US citizen.

When I worked in radio, I was a news anchor, but then when I took on some co-hosting duties, when you are asked your opinion, I felt a little bit weird that, not being a citizen, giving my opinion to the citizens that live here and are allowed to vote.

So, that really was important to me to become a citizen of this country and able to vote, able to express my opinions, able to contribute, able to volunteer.

Do all of that kind of stuff and just be a full US citizen.

Not someone who is from another country giving their opinion on the situation here.

So, I just loved it.

I love this country.

I love the opportunities that it affords to people.

And, the sky's the limit when you are a US citizen, where I think a lot of Americans don't realize, that living in other countries, how difficult it is.

Here, you can be what you want, you can do what you want, and, like I said, the sky's the limit.

So, I'm really proud to be part of this country and this capacity.

- Well, congratulations that the journey turned out so well.

Diane Brennan.

An old friend.

It's good to see you again and thanks for sharing your story on July 4th.

We certainly appreciate it.

- Thank you for having me.

- Before becoming a US citizen in 2018, Karina Monzon lived in constant fear that she could be deported.

Her process to become a US citizen is one of the reasons she became a paralegal.

She shared her experience with Horizonte's Jose Cardenas.

- [Jose] Karina, thank you so much for joining us to talk about your experiences on becoming a citizen.

And as I understand it, your father came first and he got his status, as I understand it, relatively quickly, but it took a long time with respect to you and your mom.

- I don't know.

The process was extremely lengthy, where I had gone to school in the US and I completed high school and we were still waiting for our documents to be processed.

- So, roughly 20 years or so?

- Almost, yeah.

- And during that time period, was there apprehension?

Were you worried that somehow, even though you had quasi-legal status anyway, that you might be deported?

- [Karina] All the time.

I was always worried.

As a child, I had to carry a piece of paper that said I was allowed to be here while our case was being processed.

And my mom would always make sure I had it with me everywhere I went.

So, I was always very aware that there was- that I wasn't completely safe.

- So, you wanted to make sure you could show your papers if you were ever asked for them?

- Yes.

I mean, I was terrified of the thought that that would ever happened.

Luckily, I never had to.

But, needless to say, it was a worrisome part of my childhood.

- And, as I understand it, one of the benefits that you obtained when you became a legal resident, with the paper you're talking about that you got after high school, was that you could go to work.

- Yes.

Once we were finally approved to have a work permit, it was life changing because I was able to support myself and help my family.

I was lucky enough to land a job at a law firm over the summer and, from then on, I realized that I was really interested in that field, and so I decided to enroll in the paralegal studies program at Phoenix College.

- And you ended up working for Danny Ortega, one of the most prominent lawyers in town, also very, very involved in civil rights.

Particularly, on behalf of the Latino community.

- Yes.

It was a great honor.

I couldn't believe it.

That I would work with someone that's always been fighting for immigrant rights and civil rights in general, but yes.

- I wanna talk a little bit, in a moment, about how that's impacted what you do and your feelings for other people who, like DACA students.

But before that, 2014 was a very special year for you because that's when you became a citizen.

- Yes it was.

They year that I stopped worrying.

It was a very small ceremony.

I've been to several.

Any friend or family member that becomes a citizen, I always make an effort to be there because I know how special that is.

And so, my ceremony was very small but still very impactful.

- [Jose] You weren't worried that at the last minute they said you couldn't, were you?

- Yes!

It never feels like you- There's always another step.

Even the day that I went in for my exam, at the interview, at the citizenship interview, and I was told I passed, and you'll receive a letter and you'll be back for the ceremony.

Even that, it took a month.

Even within that month, I was nervous that something could go wrong.

- And it took a long time before you were able to get your citizenship, right?

- It did.

It's all been a long process.

- We're almost out of time.

Tell me about your feelings on what you've done with respect to DACA students and Dreamers who are not receiving the same kind of benefits that you know have.

- I think about them all the time.

I think about how I could have easily been a dreamer myself, had I not had this great opportunity.

Now that I'm a citizen, I support the legislation and I support anything I can do in the community to help other kids like me that were brought here as children that we know- We don't know any other place.

We're American, you know, by every other standard.

And I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to have became a citizen and I encourage everyone who has that opportunity to also become a citizen if you can.

And nobody knows the struggle more than we do.

And try to help others in our situation.

- Karina Monzon, thank you for giving us the opportunity to interview you and congratulations on all that you've achieved.

- Thank you.

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Submit your questions, comments, and concerns via email at arizonahorizon@asu.edu.

- That is it for now.

I'm Ted Simons.

Thank you so much for joining us on this special edition of Arizona Horizon.

You have a great evening.

Coming up in the next half hour of local news on Arizona PBS, on Cronkite news, the impact of heat and drought on the state.

And on Break it Down, the evolution of the citizenship test through US history.