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Before swearing in new citizens, immigration officials check to make sure prospective citizens weren't on voter rolls or voted before achieving legal citizenship. A citizenship petition can be denied if they were.

The oath of renunciation and allegiance is a solemn vow taken by thousands of immigrants each year to become a United States citizen. The oath is the fundamental statement of allegiance to the United States, and this allegiance is what unites America.

My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.

I became an American citizen three years ago, and if I'd been arrested, maybe that wouldn't have happened. That was a very proud moment, by the way. I still have my Irish passport, but becoming an American citizen was important in terms of my family.

When became citizens, we took an oath to support and defend the Constitution and laws and bear faith and allegiance to the same. When I became a judge last year, I took the very same oath administered by Justice O'Conner. Rather amazingly, I'm now in the position to administer that oath to others who themselves are becoming citizens.

As a newcomer to America who learned to 'speak American' by watching movies, I firmly believe that to change the politics of immigration and citizenship, we must change culture - the way we portray undocumented people like me and our role in society.

I am undoubtedly one of the more, if not the most, privileged undocumented immigrants in America. And for us at Define American, which is this culture campaign group that I founded with some friends, culture trumps politics.

I do feel, in a sense, the rules of engagement for citizenship has changed, and we must encourage other people to speak up and to take action.

As Members of Congress, we swear an oath to uphold the United States Constitution. It means something to be an American because we believe in our country, we believe in our people, and we believe in our constitution.