I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE FOR LIFE

Twenty kids from foreign places stood before the public Wednesday night and declared their loyalty to this country.

Twenty kids joined the ranks of the 300 million other Americans with whom they now share citizenship.

Twenty kids took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America -- and not one of them smirked or made a snarky comment.

This ceremony, this formality put on for the TV cameras and the parents and the federal bureaucrats, meant something to the kids.

"It's only a one-time thing in your life," said Omar Calvillo, 17, born in Mexico but now a U.S. citizen. "I wanted to make it as special as possible."

The ceremony, put on by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, was at Opportunity Village's Magical Forest.

It included the children, who ranged in age from 2 to 19, taking the oath, or their parents doing it for them, and receiving certificates of citizenship.

None of it needed to happen, federal immigration officials acknowledged. Though the children did not begin life as U.S. citizens, they each had already become such before this ceremony.

Lola Parocua, the Las Vegas field office director for immigration services, said changes in the law in 2001 made it easier for the children of U.S. citizens to become citizens themselves.

That's what each of these children were. A few were adopted by U.S. citizens, while the rest were born in foreign countries to Americans.

Calvillo, the teenager who was born in Mexico, has been in the United States since he was 3 months old.

His parents came here illegally 17 years ago, but his mom, Miribel Estrada, became a citizen this year. His dad is not around, he said.

Calvillo, a junior at Desert Pines High School in eastern Las Vegas, has lived here for about eight years. He said he could have lived his life without becoming a citizen, but he didn't want to.

There's the good feeling of it all, and there's also a practical side.

"More doors are open," he said. "Scholarships. Licenses. Schools. So much more opportunities for you if you're a citizen."

Parocua said the ceremony, while only a formality, fills a need. It symbolizes their citizenship.

This was the first one held in public. Such ceremonies are routinely held in federal offices.

But, Parocua said, she wanted to give this special gift, this public ceremony, to the children.

She herself went through a similar ceremony as a child, she said. She was born abroad to a U.S. citizen.

"Little did I know that my destiny would bring me here," she said. She told the children that she still remembers it.

"Many, many years from now, you will remember this event as one of your most memorable moments," she said.

Same goes for the parents.

Annalee Kruyer is an American, but her husband is Canadian. Two of her children -- she is pregnant with her sixth -- were born in Canada.

She is a dentist and a captain in the U.S. Army. She has lived all over this country.

She told the gathering that she was proud of her country, that it is a place of bravery and strength and tolerance.

"One of the best things about America is you can become anything you want to be," she said.

Kruyer said it was never easy for her two Canadian-born children, Tynica, 14, and Jonathan, 12, to become citizens. Her husband, Paul, is still working on gaining his U.S. citizenship.

But it has all been worth it, she said.

"I've seen the price that has to be paid for democracy," she said, noting that she served a year in Iraq. "You can't take that for granted."

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.