Speaker 1: Good evening, everybody. Thank you all. Yeah, this is perfect.
Speaker 1: Thank you all so much for joining us. We're gonna
Speaker 1: go ahead and get started. There's still plenty of seats
Speaker 1: on this side of the table if you want to
Speaker 1: come in and grab a seat. We're so excited that
Speaker 1: you could join us. My name is Kylie Roberson. I'm
Speaker 1: the director of the Bartlesville Public Library, and I want
Speaker 1: to thank you all for being here this evening on
Speaker 1: such a special occasion. On behalf of the Bartlesville Public Library.
Speaker 1: It's my great honor and joy to congratulate Eva on
Speaker 1: passing her citizenship test. As we know, becoming a citizen
Speaker 1: is no small accomplishment. It takes dedication, courage, and a
Speaker 1: deep commitment to learning. Eva your hard work, your perseverance,
Speaker 1: your determination have all inspired us. You're not only not
Speaker 1: only did you study and prepare, but you embrace this
Speaker 1: journey with grace and with strength. We're so to have
Speaker 1: been a part of that path for you, and we're
Speaker 1: thrilled to celebrate this major milestone with you today. The
Speaker 1: Library's mission is to support learning and growth, and you've
Speaker 1: truly brought that mission to life. So congratulations again. We
Speaker 1: also have a few other people here as you can see,
Speaker 1: who wants to congratulate you this evening. So at this
Speaker 1: time I'm going to invite Barlzil Mayor Kurd to speak
Speaker 1: on behalf of our wonderful city.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Kylie. A great honor to be here today
Speaker 2: and to see the benefit of this program again and
Speaker 2: seeing Ava get our citizenship and become part of America.
Speaker 2: So I want to be on behalf of the city
Speaker 2: of Barlszil. I want to congratulate you and thank you
Speaker 2: for being in this program and being a part of
Speaker 2: our library here in town and becoming acquainted with this
Speaker 2: country through our program. It's just an honor to be
Speaker 2: here today and witnesses in your behalf.
Speaker 3: Thank you, good evening. I'm Cheryl Doris. I am the
Speaker 3: literacy coordinator here at the Bartlesol Public Library Literacy Services.
Speaker 3: I'd also like to introduce the rest of my staff.
Speaker 3: Von Leep is here, I think she's our ell instructor
Speaker 3: and Hannah Soarez, our literacy assistant. It's truly a privileged
Speaker 3: to be part of a program that helps people reach
Speaker 3: such meaningful milestones as United States citizenship. Tonight we're here
Speaker 3: to celebrate one of those extraordinary achievements. I'm so excited
Speaker 3: to recognize Eva, who is now officially a United States citizen.
Speaker 3: To everyone here, thank you for attending the special citizenship
Speaker 3: celebration even in the rain. We really appreciate you all.
Speaker 3: Coming out tonight means so much, not just to Eva,
Speaker 3: but to all of us who believe in the power
Speaker 3: of learning, perseverance, and community. We're so proud of you, Eva,
Speaker 3: and we have a little something here for you if
Speaker 3: you want to him out. You've shown us the American
Speaker 3: dream is still very much alive and we are lucky
Speaker 3: to have you as part of our community. And now
Speaker 3: I would like to introduce Judge Backlaw, who is so
Speaker 3: graciously offered to speak to us tonight.
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I am honored to be here.
Speaker 2: Eva.
Speaker 4: What a great night for you and for the city
Speaker 4: of Bartlesville to see the hope and promise of America.
Speaker 4: Where'd she go?
Speaker 1: I can't see her?
Speaker 4: Oh, just standing over here. Sorry, I couldn't see where
Speaker 4: she went. She was back there when I started. I
Speaker 4: also want to thank Barzvill Public Library for doing the
Speaker 4: things that they do to make this happen. Also wanted
Speaker 4: to thank mister mayor the City of Bartlesville. I can
Speaker 4: think of no thing more patriotic than to help people
Speaker 4: become American citizens. And this program that you all have
Speaker 4: that does that, what a wonderful blessing and gift it
Speaker 4: is to the City of Bartlesville. So in my day
Speaker 4: job as a judge, I get to see the American
Speaker 4: story in action. I get to see the Constitution and
Speaker 4: its application and how we apply it in our laws.
Speaker 4: But tonight I get to see a different application of
Speaker 4: our constitution, and that is welcoming a new citizen to
Speaker 4: our country. And so to our newest American and a
Speaker 4: proud daughter of Mexico, bien venida, Losa salsandos, you are
Speaker 4: now a citizen of our great country. You have a
Speaker 4: shared national story, a story that, like all great stories,
Speaker 4: is full of contradiction, courage, imperfection, and hope your story
Speaker 4: now becomes a part of ours, and our story is
Speaker 4: forever made better because of yours. I want to talk
Speaker 4: a little bit tonight about the Constitution, some constitutional decisions
Speaker 4: that were made by our Supreme Court as it pertains
Speaker 4: to immigration, and then share a few stories. But let's
Speaker 4: be honest about the road that brought us here. The
Speaker 4: story of immigration is a hard story brought with great difficulties.
Speaker 4: The history of immigrants in our country is not without
Speaker 4: hardship or injustice. We have seen laws used as weapons,
Speaker 4: not always as shields. We've seen the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Speaker 4: We've seen the interment of Japanese Americans. We've seen the
Speaker 4: mistreatment of American labors, people who come to our country
Speaker 4: to work as labors, legally and otherwise. And of course
Speaker 4: we see the painful struggle for civil rights and equality
Speaker 4: for many people that still struggles today. I want to
Speaker 4: tell this story because it is a story of an
Speaker 4: evolving America and an evolving Constitution. I look around the room,
Speaker 4: and most of the people in this room when the
Speaker 4: Constitution was written were not really considered a part of it.
Speaker 4: And so as we've learned, and as we've grown, and
Speaker 4: as our Constitution has been interpreted, and its growth shows
Speaker 4: to us the promise that we have in our country.
Speaker 4: But I want to highlight a few cases that I
Speaker 4: think are interesting, especially given where we're at today. And
Speaker 4: one of those things is that I saw an interview
Speaker 4: recently of two Supreme Court justices who have since passed
Speaker 4: justice Antoninscalia and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They were both
Speaker 4: interviewed and asked about the legal rights of immigrants, and
Speaker 4: particularly they were asked about undocumented immigrants. Now, I will
Speaker 4: say this that one of the great things about your
Speaker 4: duty now is you are going to be participating in
Speaker 4: a system that you weren't allowed to before. But the
Speaker 4: constitutional protections of our country have always been available to
Speaker 4: you and to others. I liken it to an umbrella,
Speaker 4: since it's reigning. Every person who stands under an umbrella
Speaker 4: is protected by it. The same thing with our constitution.
Speaker 4: There's case law that supports that belief. And Antonin Scalia,
Speaker 4: who was on the far right of the court, and
Speaker 4: Ruth bader Ginsburg, who was on the far left of
Speaker 4: the court, and we're best friends, I should point out,
Speaker 4: the best of friends, both answered this question. Do undocumented
Speaker 4: immigrants have protections under our constitution? Antonin Scalia went first
Speaker 4: and said yes. Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out something more
Speaker 4: and said yes. The fourteenth Amendment of our Constitution doesn't
Speaker 4: say the word citizen. It says persons, and all persons
Speaker 4: here in the United States are afforded the protections of
Speaker 4: the Constitution regardless of citizenship. And there's a few cases
Speaker 4: where this has been developed. One was Pliler versus Doe
Speaker 4: in nineteen eighty two, decided by the United States Supreme Court.
Speaker 4: The question was asked, do states have to pay for
Speaker 4: the education of undocumented immigrants, and the Supreme Court said, yes,
Speaker 4: they do, because those people have inherent rights being in
Speaker 4: our country to be treated the same as other children.
Speaker 4: The question then came a few years later in two
Speaker 4: thousand and one with Zidevas versus Davis, which asked whether
Speaker 4: or not immigrants could be detained indefinitely. The Supreme Court
Speaker 4: once again said they're entitled to the same rights a
Speaker 4: due process of wherever that is, whether it's in a
Speaker 4: court of law for a criminal setting, or an administrative
Speaker 4: setting such as an immigration court. You can kind of
Speaker 4: see why I might be suggesting bringing these cases up
Speaker 4: because they are so heavy on our minds today in
Speaker 4: a lot of different ways. But the Supreme Court has
Speaker 4: spoken about these issues and I share them for a reason.
Speaker 4: But I want to share the last case that I
Speaker 4: bring up today because it's one of my favorites. It's
Speaker 4: not my favorite because they got it right. It's my
Speaker 4: favorite because they got it wrong. An American boy, an
Speaker 4: American citizen named Freddie. During World War Two, Freddie was
Speaker 4: at or told, demanded, ordered to go into an internment
Speaker 4: camp here in the United States of America. His name
Speaker 4: was fred Kooramatsu, and the case was Koramatsu versus the
Speaker 4: United States. Freddy was just like me, an American citizen
Speaker 4: born here, and yet he had to go into an
Speaker 4: internment camp as ordered by our government at that time
Speaker 4: for all Japanese Americans here in this country. He refused
Speaker 4: to go. Freddie decided, he's an American. He's not going
Speaker 4: into an internment camp. He has no reason to be.
Speaker 4: He's done nothing wrong. He was charged with a crime
Speaker 4: for disobeyed court order. He was sentenced and convicted and
Speaker 4: forced into the internment camp. Anyway, he appealed. He appealed
Speaker 4: all the way to the Spring court, and he lost.
Speaker 4: It wasn't until forty years later that he had his
Speaker 4: conviction overturned. So why do I bring that up? He
Speaker 4: had to wait forty years. Well, sometimes it takes us
Speaker 4: a little longer to get it right, to figure things out.
Speaker 4: I don't think that we are a great country because
Speaker 4: we limit rights We are a great country because we
Speaker 4: expand them. That story of Fred Kormatsu and others, and
Speaker 4: the stories that I've told you about are just as
Speaker 4: much a part of the American story as anything else
Speaker 4: that I'm going to share with you tonight, and certainly
Speaker 4: a story that you now share as a proud American citizen.
Speaker 4: Legal rights are only part of the story. Now you
Speaker 4: have civic responsibilities to vote, to use your voice to
Speaker 4: speak in our democracy. That you now have that great right.
Speaker 4: When Thomas Jefferson James Madison, two of our founders and
Speaker 4: framers of our constitution, were putting things on paper, they
Speaker 4: knew that the people were the greatest check on government power.
Speaker 4: And what I love more anything else is a jury trial,
Speaker 4: because there is nothing more powerful than the rights of
Speaker 4: citizens to sit before their government and determine whether or
Speaker 4: not the government can do whatever it wants. Those twelve citizens.
Speaker 4: And I hope some day you for get a letter
Speaker 4: from the courthouse that you will serve as a jur
Speaker 4: But those twelve citizens are a check upon the government
Speaker 4: to make sure that the government does not incarcerate someone
Speaker 4: without due process of law, without the rights that they've
Speaker 4: been afforded to an attorney without that right to a
Speaker 4: jury trial, to confront and see and have all witnesses
Speaker 4: there their right to remain silent and not say a
Speaker 4: thing and make the government prove it. There is no
Speaker 4: greater responsibility in my mind as an American citizen than
Speaker 4: to sit as that check to make sure that the
Speaker 4: government cannot do whatever it wants. You are now a
Speaker 4: part of a country where justice isn't always finished. It's
Speaker 4: a progress. It's constantly be in shape, and you are
Speaker 4: one of those shapers. As I welcome you to the
Speaker 4: American family, I want to share one last little immigration story.
Speaker 4: The immigration story I want to tell you about is
Speaker 4: a man named Valenti. Valenti lived here in Bartlesville, just
Speaker 4: off of fourteenth Street in Virginia, in an area that
Speaker 4: has nothing there now. If he lived here in Bartleswell
Speaker 4: came here to Bortsol with the hope for the American dream.
Speaker 4: Lived in a one room shack with his wife and family.
Speaker 4: He was a day laborer. When he was lucky enough,
Speaker 4: he'd get a dollar a day to work wherever he could.
Speaker 4: That didn't always pan out, so I Valenti made the
Speaker 4: unwise decision to become a bootlegger. Now bootlegger, for those
Speaker 4: who don't know, is someone who sold alcohol illegally during
Speaker 4: prohibition here in America. Well, Lenti got caught, was arrested, convicted,
Speaker 4: and sent to prison. Now that might be where the
Speaker 4: American story would end for him. When he was arrested,
Speaker 4: he went and stood in front.
Speaker 2: Of a judge.
Speaker 4: Valenti backlaw one hundred years later would see his grandson,
Speaker 4: if he were around, become the judge that sat in
Speaker 4: a position that sentenced him to jail. Now that's an
Speaker 4: American story, but it's not unique. We have hundreds and
Speaker 4: mid thousands of American stories like that that you get shape.
Speaker 4: And I'm so excited for you to be able to
Speaker 4: see what happens with the future for you.
Speaker 1: Eva.
Speaker 4: Here in this country we are all immigrants. I'm an immigrant,
Speaker 4: or at least I'm the descendant of a Polish American
Speaker 4: bootlegging convicted felon, and I stand before you today as
Speaker 4: a judge in the great state of Oklahoma. If that's
Speaker 4: not a miracle of this country, I don't know what
Speaker 4: is bien venida felici. That is see you the Donna.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much for leave you here. Day.
Speaker 1: Well, that was quite the success story, Judge. Thank you
Speaker 1: for sharing with us. Eva, Thank you for everything that
Speaker 1: you've brought to this library, your diversity, your uniqueness, and
Speaker 1: everything that you've done here. We really really appreciate you,
Speaker 1: and we're so happy and proud of you, and we're
Speaker 1: so grateful to everybody here who's come tonight. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of food. Please come and take advantage, come and go,
Speaker 1: congratulate Eva, sit and enjoy experience this time together. And
Speaker 1: thank you so much again for joining us tonight.