New citizens ready to cast first ballots

BANGOR – Jamal Mohammed is the last member of his family to become a citizen of the United States.

Three years ago, he missed the deadline to apply to become a citizen with other family members, including seven brothers and three sisters.

Mohammed, 20, was one of 24 men and women from 15 countries who Friday gave up citizenship in the nations of their births and swore allegiance to a new homeland. The Husson College student moved to Nashville from Somalia when he was 4 years old and to Maine 12 years later. He is a graduate of Lewiston High School.

After the ceremony held at U.S. District Court in Bangor, Mohammed said he was looking forward to voting for the first time on Tuesday, but had not decided for whom he would cast his ballot.

“There are so many choices, I haven’t decided yet,” he said.

Daniel Howells, 59, of Milford also plans to vote for the first time Tuesday. He decided to give up his Canadian citizenship after living in Maine for 30 years.

“I live here,” he said after the ceremony. “I was in the service here. I married a lovely lady here. I just thought, ‘Why not?'”

U.S. District Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. told the new citizens that by taking the citizenship oath, “you’ve become as much a citizen as every other American – no matter who they are or who they think they are.”

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Louis H. Kornreich on Friday joined Woodcock on the bench for the ceremony.

“Whether you’ve come here for love or opportunity or freedom,” Woodcock said, “it makes no difference. In the United States of America, it does not matter who you were, but who you are. … On behalf of your new country, I welcome you and congratulate you and wish you all well.”

Woodcock encouraged the immigrants to write down the stories of their journeys from their old countries to their new one so they can be shared with future generations.

Diana Castle, 36, of Rockport understood that sentiment.

As her husband, Simon Castle, 37, took the oath, she stood beside him clutching a homemade flag. In the blue field, where the 50 stars usually rest, she placed a photograph of the couple’s 8-month-old son, Oliver. Over the red and white stripes, she penned a message from the boy to his father.

“Daddy, I love you so much and am so proud of you,” the flag read. “I can’t believe you are an American. Congratulations, Daddy.”

Simon Castle, a native of the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England, sailed into Camden Harbor a dozen years ago, met his future wife and couldn’t leave. He works at Wayfarer Marina in the boating industry.

“I became a citizen for my family, for myself, and for my little boy,” he said after the ceremony.