On Wednesday a naturalization ceremony for new United States citizens took place at the Utah Capitol building.
Inside the Capitol rotunda, people from 43 countries stood holding tiny American flags as they took the oath of allegiance to become naturalized American citizens. Laura McNeer with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services led the oath.
"Okay if you can repeat after me: I hereby declare on oath." McNeer said, as the crowd repeated the phrase.
The group included people originally from Armenia, Liberia, Burma, the Philippines and many other countries.
Republican Speaker of the Utah House Greg Hughes told the crowd about his own family’s emigration to America from Ireland in the 1860s. He also encouraged them to get actively involved in Utah’s local government.
"We’re your servants. If you don’t raise your voice, there are people that will raise theirs and then we’ll just live by the rules of those that step forward. So we need you. We need your voice," Hughes said.
In all, 126 people took the oath to become U.S. citizens, some of them waiting years for this moment.