{"id":242907,"date":"2025-09-21T02:48:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T02:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/242907\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T02:48:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T02:48:16","slug":"honduran-immigrant-passes-citizenship-test-inspires-hope-amid-ice-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/242907\/","title":{"rendered":"Honduran immigrant passes citizenship test, inspires hope amid ICE fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tears collected in Maryori Urbina-Contreras\u2019 eyes as she stood outside Chicago\u2019s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building, an American flag grasped tightly in her hand. The 24-year-old blotted her eyes before turning to enter the building where her citizenship test awaited.<\/p>\n

The test was a long time coming for Urbina-Contreras, who arrived in the U.S. in 2014 from Honduras<\/a> after experiencing and witnessing gang violence in her hometown of Tegucigalpa.<\/p>\n

At age 13, Urbina-Contreras left Honduras without telling anyone and with $20. She sought to find her mom, who had left when she was just 8 months old and wound up in Waukegan. The trip took Urbina-Contreras a month as she traveled the 1,900 miles through Guatemala and Mexico on her own by foot, bus and car, even rafting across the Rio Grande.<\/p>\n

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Honduran teen, who entered U.S. as unaccompanied child, awaits word on fate<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

More than 10 years later, Urbina-Contreras is still weaving her way through the immigration process. She was granted asylum in 2018<\/a> after telling the judge she dreamed of being a nurse, and then received permanent residency in 2021<\/a>. Recently, a letter arrived notifying her that she could take her citizenship test on Saturday morning after applying for naturalization last July.<\/p>\n

Those years culminated in a dream come true for Urbina-Contreras, who passed her citizenship test this weekend after hours of studying American facts with her younger sister. Her tears of nervousness turned to tears of joy as she appeared through a set of double doors, fist-pumping the air as she declared, \u201cI passed.\u201d<\/p>\n

She then made her way to two others: her 16-year-old sister, Valeria Ruiz, who quizzed her older sister relentlessly, and humanitarian advocate and pastor Julie Contreras, who has known the family for over a decade.<\/p>\n

Urbina-Contreras\u2019s achievement comes at a time of strife for many immigrants across the country, particularly in the Chicago area. An influx of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived in the city earlier this month in what President Donald Trump\u2019s administration is calling \u201cOperation Midway Blitz.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timing of the naturalization is not lost on Urbina-Contreras, who said she was initially fearful of taking the exam when she got the letter and worried that she would be arrested. However, after reassurances from her family, attorneys, citizenship officials, and pastor Contreras, she felt ready. Urbina-Contreras was not only doing for herself but also for other refugees and the wider Latino community, who she said is \u201csometimes just trying to work harder and be better.\u201d<\/p>\n