About 500 people sworn in on Fourth of July as new US citizens in Seattle



SEATTLE -- About 500 people from countries across the world became U.S. citizens at the Independence Day Naturalization Ceremony in Seattle Wednesday.

In total, there were people from more than 80 different countries who were sworn in as citizens during the event.

About two dozen of the newly sworn citizens already serve in the U.S. military.

“I felt the need deep inside of me to do something more than a regular job,” said Andreea Andrews.

Andrews is a Petty Officer 3rd class for the Navy. She has been in the Navy for more than a year.

On Wednesday, she was surrounded by hundreds of other people from countries with different beliefs, ideas, and religions but who are all connected by three colors: red, white and blue.

“All that America has given me, the way that it transformed me into the person that I am today, the way that it matured me, that it nurtured me, I don’t have any words, more words of gratitude than my humble love inside my heart,” Andrews said.

During the ceremony, Gov. Jay Inslee and King County Executive Dow Constantine addressed the hundreds of new U.S. citizens.

Across the country each year about 700,000 people become U.S. citizens.