For Immediate Release June 2, 2005

Media Contact: Melissa Wood

703-799-5203 mwood@mountvernon.org

MOUNT VERNON, Va. – Mount Vernon hosts its fifth annual U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Ceremony on Flag Day, Tuesday, June 14. The ceremony begins at 10:00 a.m. with the United States Marine Band performing as the opening of the program. The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service (USCIS) and the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association co-host the ceremony as America’s 100 newest citizens from countries all across the world, pre-selected by the USCIS, pledge to “uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.”

Open to the public with general Mount Vernon admission, all visitors are invited to witness these citizens by choice take the name American in the country Washington envisioned as “an Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions” and in front of the home he so dearly loved.

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Events, programs, and activities are subject to change. Public Information: 703-780-2000; 703-799-8697 (TDD); www.mountvernon.org