Mark Woods: Worth remembering all the feel-good immigration stories

It was about a year ago that Bill Brim watched “Peace by Chocolate” on Amazon Prime.

The 2021 movie is based on the real-life story of a family fleeing war-torn Syria after their home and chocolate business were destroyed in bombings. They spent time in a refugee camp in Lebanon, eventually ending up in the tiny Canadian town of Antigonish, Nova Scotia.

It illustrates the challenges, both for the refugees and the community — and, in the end, how both the refugees and community are enriched by the experience (which, yes, involves making and eating more chocolate).

It’s a feel-good movie, one that made Brim say: “This is what I want people to see and understand about refugees.”

He’s CEO of Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida. The nonprofit organization has been around since 1979. And while it is involved in much more than refugee resettlement, that is a significant piece of what it does.

In the last fiscal year, LSS helped 659 people, arriving in Jacksonville following the extensive vetting of the U.S. refugee admission program, to get a new start in America. They came from 21 countries, topped by Afghanistan, Venezuela and Syria. And they have their own stories.

So when Brim came into the office after watching “Peace by Chocolate,” he wondered if there was a way to show it to an audience in Jacksonville. He says Jennifer Barrett, LSS chief development officer, “took the ball and ran with it” — leading to a free screening of the movie Saturday night at the University of North Florida, with the director and others doing a Q&A.

It wasn’t planned this way, but that screening sure became timely.

It came at the end of a week when immigration and feel-fear stories — some not based on real-life events — reached new levels.

I don’t want to dive too deep into politics, partly because I know that causes people to instantly take sides and tune out. I’ll just say that we do indeed have some border issues (which could have been alleviated if a bipartisan plan wasn’t scuttled for very political reasons) and that we’ve also seen an increase in the demonization of immigrants (even of people who are here legally, obeying laws, working, raising families, paying taxes).

So it seems like a fitting time to point out that there are so many feel-good stories — ones that don’t make campaign fodder or headlines.

Brim says they see these stories every day at Lutheran Social Services, not on a screen, but in their office and our city.

“Jacksonville has always been a very welcoming place,” he said, adding about the refugees: “They’re not coming here and tapping our resources. In fact, they’re enriching us.”

I already was thinking about this when I got a news release about another event that seems fitting: a naturalization ceremony before the Jumbo Shrimp game Tuesday night, which not coincidentally is Constitution Day.

A fitting day to become American

Before the Jumbo Shrimp open a six-game series with the Gwinnett Stripers, Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan will administer the Oath of Allegiance to 20 area residents.

The 20 new citizens range in age from 20 to 68 and come from 14 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Ireland, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Spain, Ukraine and Venezuela.

After the oath, Judge Patty Barksdale will lead the new citizens in the Pledge of Allegiance. She’s the one who arranged to have this ceremony on Constitution Day (also known as Citizenship Day), which recognizes the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution in Philadelphia on Sept. 17, 1787.

A bit of Constitutional trivia (which I only know because I looked it up): Seven of the 39 signers of the U.S. Constitution were immigrants, including one who became the subject of a little musical more than 200 years later. And, of course, none was born an American, quite simply because the country didn’t exist.

They all became Americans.

So this feels like a particularly fitting day for people to become Americans.

And the way of doing it — with the public hearing what was required for them to become citizens, watching them take the oath, applauding them and then, if past events are any indication, joining them in the pledge — adds another element to the ceremony.

It’s the kind of thing that judges here started doing in the last decade.

Judge Corrigan says the federal court has been doing naturalization ceremonies “for a long, long time.” They generally have 10 ceremonies a year in the Bryan Simpson U.S. Courthouse. They’re always what he describes as “very nice events,” not only for the new citizens but for judges who often oversee less happy occasions. They try to invite others to be there to share in the experience, but space is limited.

“So we’ve really embraced the idea of taking it out in the community,” he said. “And the response has been overwhelmingly positive. It really has been an uplifting and even heartwarming endeavor.”

He says Judge Marcia Morales Howard deserves the credit for persuading the Jaguars to hold naturalization ceremonies at halftime of games. Jaguars owner Shad Khan, a naturalized citizen, has been on the field for them. And Judge Corrigan has been involved in them.

“We’ve done that now at least five or six years,” he said. “Not only are the citizens delighted … but what we’ve been gratified by is the reaction of the crowd.”

The fans in the stands have cheered for the new citizens and, at the same time, for America.

It has inspired judges in other parts of the state and country to hold similar ceremonies. And it led to Corrigan thinking of another place to hold naturalization ceremonies: high schools.

The first one was at Wolfson High School, shortly before the start of the pandemic. They had 40 citizenship candidates on stage, in front of a full auditorium. They had a student ambassador walk onto the stage with each citizen and present them to the judge, saying this is so-and-so from Haiti or Cuba or whatever country they emigrated from.

He was worried that the students might be disinterested. They weren’t then, and haven’t been as these ceremonies have continued at other high schools.

“At the last one, at First Coast High School, the students spontaneously just started yelling out, ‘U-S-A, U-S-A,’” he said. “I mean, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

mwoods@jacksonville.com

(904) 359-4212

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Mark Woods: Worth remembering all the feel-good immigration stories