ABOUT SEVEN PEOPLE gathered in a confused cluster around a notice on the windows of the Heritage Theatre in Campbell to learn their path to citizenship was no longer available there.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) canceled its longstanding contract with the theater March 12 due to a “termination for convenience of the government” clause. The cancellation came just weeks before hundreds of people were scheduled to take the oath of allegiance at the theater’s naturalization ceremony, the final step needed to become a U.S. citizen. USCIS is directing prospective citizens who would have used the theater to the San Jose field office. Advocates said taking away the theater and its large capacity will likely lead to longer wait times on citizenship journeys that take years.
Jasmeet Singh, an Indian citizen, was one of the people whose naturalization ceremony was rescheduled due to the cancellation. Singh said he didn’t receive any notification. He only discovered it had moved to April 19 after he arrived Wednesday at the Heritage Theatre and scrolled through an immigration portal.
He traveled from Hayward with his family, including his baby, for the canceled ceremony.
“It’s just the time that we wasted. It took us like an hour and a half to get here and then now we gotta go back and (I) missed work for today,” Singh told San José Spotlight. “It’s all like a huge chaos.”
Monthly ceremonies served thousands
The Heritage Theatre has hosted naturalization ceremonies once a month since around 2010, serving more than 1,000 people in a day. The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters often tabled at the ceremonies and walked new citizens through registering to vote.
Campbell resident and longtime Heritage Theatre volunteer Jackie Costanzo said the process could be drawn out at the San Jose field office. A USCIS spokesperson did not address how many people the office naturalizes a day, making it unclear if it has the same capacity as the theater.
Costanzo said there is no room for the registrar at the office, adding even though people can get naturalized there, it won’t be the same as the joy-filled ceremonies at the theater.
“I’m very disappointed that something that can be such a big red letter day for people, the day they became a U.S. citizen… now it’s been stolen from them,” she told San José Spotlight. “They’ll still get to become a citizen, (but) it’s going to take longer, I would guess, because of all of these issues.”
“I’m very disappointed that something that can be such a big red letter day for people, the day they became a U.S. citizen … now it’s been stolen from them.”
Jackie Costanzo, Heritage Theatre volunteer
The USCIS spokesperson said the contract cancellation won’t affect the number of naturalizations in Northern California. Roughly 20,397 people were naturalized at the San Jose field office between October 2021 and September 2022, according to USCIS data. That doesn’t include how many individuals were naturalized at the theater.
The spokesperson didn’t address how the office notified prospective citizens of the cancellation, but added that at sites without room for the registrar, USCIS distributes voter registration packets to every new citizen. They said USCIS is reviewing all contracts as part of the Trump administration’s “ongoing efforts to eliminate waste of U.S. taxpayer dollars.”
“Moving forward, USCIS will be hosting ceremonies in venues that provide the best value to the American taxpayer, including facilities already owned or operated by the federal government,” the spokesperson told San José Spotlight. “Across (the Department of Homeland Security), we are eliminating wasteful redundant services to ensure we are good stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
Mayor: ‘Not within our control’
Campbell City Manager Brian Loventhal said it’s unfortunate the contract ended and the theater can’t serve people like Virginia Valencia, who has been waiting four years to become a citizen. She was disappointed after she also found out her ceremony was canceled outside the theater.
Loventhal said Campbell doesn’t have a choice over the contract’s cancellation.
“(The ceremonies have) been important to the community and it’s well supported,” he told San José Spotlight. “We look forward to it coming back at the appropriate time, but that’s not within our control.”
Singh doesn’t mind when or where the ceremony occurs, as long as it happens. He said he left India because of the country’s treatment of minority groups and has been in Hayward for seven years after moving between Fremont and Campbell.
“That was a reason to kind of move to the U.S., to look for better life opportunities and I mean, I think we found that here,” he said.
Contact Annalise Freimarck at annalise@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @annalise_ellen on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.
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