While the incentive may be an American passport or eligibility for job, the greatest privilege of gaining citizenship is participating in the essential function of the democracy by voting. Single votes matter as we have seen this year in Georgia and Minnesota where only .001% difference divides winners and losers.

Citizenship is at the apex of an individual’s journey and central to the concept of being an "American." We are a people who aspire to a political ideal; we create a nation that forms its essential identity by being 'One created from many.' Neither parental identity nor national DNA makes us American.