raised in ethiopia where there are a number of you know human rights violation for example human rights violations against women minorities ethnic violence i've always known that i wanted to be a lawyer and  and the second issue is that you know as someone who came from east africa which is one of the major sources of refugees you know from later in life i think after i graduated from high school that i wanted to specialize in international law particularly international refugee law so that was something that really drove me to become an attorney ok so when you're talked you talked about your school and when we talk we went to the same school and what was your experience on learning to through the only catholic and girls school in in ethiopia i think to be honest with you i mean going to another school part of being part of that community has actually opened my eyes it has made me very aware of you know myself who i am i so person what i wanted to be and it has also taught me to be independent i think that's really true because i made another students feel the same way because learning and on a girls school make you to be more confident enough to go outside and learn how is your journey from coming from ethiopia to here if i could just you know talk about my educational background  like i said i went to school that was where i went to high school and then i went to university which is about five hundred kilometer from the silva that's where i did my underwear undergraduate degree law and then i had the opportunity to do my masters in international law and human rights at the united nations mandated university costa rica then i did my second master's degree in peace studies in austria ensberg austria and then finally i did my last master degree in international i mean in law here at the university of washington here in seattle professionally i started teaching at the university from how to my university and then to the first private university in like special things there you really want to share and take any thing they can remember do they want to share with us yeah well as a woman maybe you'll hear me say a lot about you know women because i'm really drawn to it and one of the first things that i went to law school to was because i've seen the kind of domestic violence women in ethiopia go through and when i was going to law school i used to volunteer i was sort of like an intern at the european women's lawyers association i don't know because you know it was not practical enough so the second thing that i'm really really happy and proud to do was working for you and it gave me an opportunity to work with refugees from all over eighteen countries  ethiopia because they were seeking protection so for me that was it was a drive it was something to wake up early in the morning and then and be there and try to help with what you could even though you were the one being helped sometimes because you get to learn a lot from their lives from their their experiences so i think and then after i came here that's pretty much what i've been doing here i am a principle attorney for and other other cases like people who survived human trafficking or other forms of violence or crimes so this is what i've been doing with my code what do you think about it the immigration cases where people's lives have been you know inconvenienced or something that they did something wrong against the law when they feel those forms or when they do things for people they're not supposed to do so my advice and for example i also volunteer with northwest immigrant rights project there based in seattle so it's for people they mostly deal with political silent cases if you came to the usa and you don't really know you don't have the because you know we have we have the legal you know we have to consider we have a constitution that actually gives rights to women i mean human rights is not something to be given by the government but it's your human right you're born with it me that question for yourself you know as compared to people who moved here thirty years ago and just a new couple right there so something that really really amazed me was you know the kind of potential that  that i see everywhere and how they use it in this country as opposed to ethiopia you know if you let women or girths get married at the age of six or eight or ten then it's a waste you know i'm all for you know  having kids getting married i'm also married but then i got married willingly you know after doing what i wanted to do in life i think i'm happy for women who decide to be you know  homemaker that's something to be proud of but it has to be made by choice you know so we're wasting a lot of potential and where women are the ones paying the price in that country and it's very very unfortunate to it so you know i took part with you know i did some internship like i told you with the and it was it was over fifteen years ago or thirteen years ago it was it was a while back and to see the same thing happening now it's it's sad but you know and i don't i don't want to leave this conversation with a sad note right we can change this country was the same over you know almost a hundred years ago women were not allowed to vote now we're seeing at woman president right so we can do the same thing it's all about commitment and we can do that i think it's all about convincing ourselves that we and of course it matters you know this is a country of opportunity and i think this is one thing that as ethiopians we should learn from from this country in a sense that you know regardless who you are in this country your your the fact that you contribute something is recognized i don't like this ethnic division what you are what your ethnicity is what you what your religion is no matter who you are you are you are you're a person at the end of the day great so this is something i want to take back or and then just you know see it happening this is my wish at least but in this context i mean we're also seeing  this is a country that because nice's people no matter who you are you're an american first regardless of your religion and what we're seeing from the democratic party is it's just very unfortunate but you know if you still say that ok this party whichever party doesn't represent me then you have to go out and vote you have to show you know what you're you can't you only count by the vote that you cast right this is this is what i think and in terms of the citizenship you know the question that you asked but you know people have language barriers of course a lot of people want to go for it but a lot of people cannot pass the citizenship tests even though they have the drive  to make a change right so there are lot of citizenship classes in libraries i live in king county so king county for example has citizens free citizenship classes for people to pass the civics part of the exam they  give you ten ten questions and you're supposed to at least answer six you you need to have some basic understanding of english you need to learn i mean you need to be able to speak read and understand english so those things are covered by free citizenship classes so i my my wish is that people who can become u s citizens want to become a citizen to take those classes or prepare by themselves and then you know become u s citizens and be the change that you want to see i think this is pretty much what i see in the ethiopian community a lot of people who are u s citizens i mean ethiopian people of ethiopian origin they don't really participate in the political process because they think they cannot one percent cannot make a change but if everyone you know sits back then who is going to win you know somebody that you are you fear is not going to win is going to be because you're not acting so this is even though i cannot vote because i'm not a q a citizen but that's what i would encourage people to so we've been involved with the with the youth or with any kind of case working case cases they work with a growing up i'm doing the child from my parents but my father has invested everything that he has on me so i mean i get to be honest with you while i was living in that house in a household i lived in a bubble like i told everyone was just like me because the role of gender was never discussed you know i i was not expected to not be anybody else that i was not you know i was i was taught from a young circumstance whether you believe in dire poverty but you can change your situation this is this is i mean so this is what i've learned at a young age so who inspired me it's my parents who inspired me  because you know i grew up in a middle class family my parents my parents parents my grandparents never learnt to read and write that was about it my father actually want to scholarship and attended at one get when gates secondary school i don't know if you knew that time finest as he was it was a huge deal so he worked hard for it his parents never had anything so he worked for everything that he he he has no ok they wanted you to be that they could not be just to you know but i insisted on being a lawyer because i knew what i wanted to be and they accepted that and it's it's a good think so i might replace him from that they they were the ones we inspired but regardless of whether you become an attorney a medical doctor an accountant or whatever it is that you want to do just follow your passion i think this is what i want to say to people  so you really have to work hard for everything that you want to have in life you know there is no easy there's no shortcut but that's about it if you have to devote if you have to work you have to work and go to school this is the reality that we're facing but then  you can definitely change your circumstance work hard have an entire i think that's what i think i mean i really didn't have i didn't know what mentorship was you know in the strictest sense of the word in ethiopia right but after i moved here i surrounded myself with a lot of mentors and i think i'm here because of them just just have mentors who inspire you and you know in twenty years and thirty years you want to say that i want to be like this person have that be surrounded by those people who people people who inspire you who are positive influence in your life and legacy regardless of what profession you choose for yourself but you have to positively contribute to the community that you come from you have to get back i think this is this is my idea of what s other aspects for example have you been discriminated or have you been persecuted against because of your race because of your imputed political can it not just actual political opinion have you been discriminated against because of you're a member of a certain social group it's just a social construct doesn't necessarily have to be just one concept or are you a survivor of female genital mutilation a lot of people don't know that it's not just that your survival female or you know children who came to the u s before the age of sixteen who are who are undocumented when they came to the u s i mean in the ethiopian community or at least in the east african community a lot of people go for asylum because this is pretty much what he's you know widely known in the community but you can make use of the aca you know if you came here under the age of sixteen again and if you came here before two thousand and seven and by two thousand and twelve you were under the age of thirty by president obama so we don't know if you will continue or not but at least it's a one way that you could get some sort of a status in this country so that is what i would highly advise young people to transfer to the community to rea make use of at least be aware that this is one possibility for you and the other issue that i greatly see is that is the violence against women act it is for actually children parents or spouses of u s citizen and sometimes green card holders these are people who who are married to u s citizens or green card holders but because of their immigrant immigrant immigration status they're actually exploited in  worked because they cannot work without getting a green card right and it's only their spouses or parents or children work u s citizens not them so they would need to be petitioned by those family members to get some sort of status in this country so they are being exploited because of that you know for example of women who is sexually abused exploited by her husband these are women for example if a woman comes from ethiopia and she's married you know she's facing marital rape in that in that household she wouldn't know that this is rape how can a woman be raped by her husband because it's not a crime in ethiopia right that isn't it is a crime in this country so they put up with abuse because they are waiting for their husbands to petition for them for them to get a green card or there their children for example they could be parents of u s says and children so my advice is that don't put up with abuse if you have to get out get out from the situation go to a women's shelter for example and then there is a way for also use that is the violence against women act you can you can ask you know you can self petition to get lawful permanent residency or concords green card you would need a lot of evidence to show that you actually went through abuse it could be for example or you know a record to a nine one one a police record medical record or you know any kind of statement from a women's shelter this could be examples but anyway make use of those things don't put up with a it's actually very unfortunate that she's an ethiopian who was a donor stick worker in one of those you know middle eastern countries so the family relocated to the u s and she came here as a domestic worker for for those family and the same employers they don't get paid they don't get sleep they it's ridiculous they get you know sometimes even raped so i don't know but i recently actually read it on the news that there was a i don't know if  they're facing i do this a paper works or documentations or this information is it out there most european people i don't want to be generalized but they don't want to share they're like don't draw nice or any of that kind of things but if they share there's so many people who are going through the same boat as you over the same kind of journey so are there any organizations or people out out on a field who can really find these people to give them help because nobody's aware of this i never heard of it i never heard of anything there you just stated above but recently so are there any or are you in the future do you have any plans to go out and really look for these people to help them out yeah i think you actually raised a very good point because you know a lot of people don't know about you visa it's only when they came to me then you know we do a screening because you know when they come to me i want to see for political asylum is like wait wait because you could you could also benefit you know by applying through other means for example and then that's when i came to know that this woman is a survivor of for example human trafficking why don't we go with the other one but people in general do not really know because the question now is a very complex area of so i mean people i mean i honestly don't know a lot of organizations that go door to door and look for this people you know this this women or this this this immigrant are actually hit and they're very vulnerable and i think a lot of them they don't even know where european community years to where to return communities yeah and also even even would they be comfortable to tell you those comments you write because you need to be able to meet you need to be confortable to for you to tell me that kind of very personal stor not really percent of all they're not approachable maybe if a woman asked those questions they wouldn't be able to come forward and say that to you so i think as a society we need to find a creative way to reach those women so far i have not seen it really reaching  because they don't want to be they don't want to discuss it out there which is douse the problem and the language barrier she also talked about it can tell us a few things now you have a plan for the future like working community or maybe with a marquee guy and other community organizations yeah i honestly would love to get involved more to to reach the community i i i don't know  i'm thinking about setting up like maybe a weekly or monthly program where people learn about their rights in their own language for example i speak on hari and i believe it's maybe not not for you know kids who  up in this country baby they prefer to you know for people to speak in english and we can also do that but there are a lot of people who don't speak any language other than i'm sorry or or somebody or to going out for a drink of unity right we need to be able to reach those people dogs in their own language so i want to have like a like a frequent programs not just one thing you do and then you stop but i want to do it consistent and sort of like a radio program where people ask the questions and then they maybe in a confidential sating get some sort of response or if it's just a general question when people could learn a lot from each other then you could also have a conversation and i really want to start that and that's have a discussion about us because as more like a mentor there's a status or like a mentor schip program so we want you to want you to come there and be part of the panel discussion so they you can tell like ok you know by the my family are living in poverty because as an immigrant your first instinct is just survival this is what you want to do but then you have to see beyond that this is what i think you  know if you go back in history you know that asians when they came here they lived in poverty but then look at where they are as a society you know they put each other out of poverty or at least you know they go to school you see their lives being changed but this is not actually what we're seeing in the east african community including being community you know even i've i've seen a lot of like medical doctors lawyers who came from ethiopia first time was you know i had a degree from ethiopia and i had to go back to school again here and then try to make it it was not easy but then you have to fight or you have to fight for what you want to do in life that in companies so regardless of the circumstance that you're in i'm talking about you know people who are in their you know teenagers in their twenty's who have you know you have your whole life ahead of you so you just don't don't be shortsighted just see yes my name is and i'm the district director for the apartment of homeland security's u s citizenship and immigration services in seattle yes today's event is july fourth a special naturalization ceremony here at the seattle center and we do this every year and today we have about five hundred candidates from over eighty five countries that will be getting naturalized today you first have to be a lawful permanent resident of the united states for about five years you have to be of good moral character you have to pass a civics and english tests and and be over eighteen years old well in addition to that you fall of course file an application and then you come in for an interview and we check all of the things you take your test we make sure that you're of good moral character that you have all the requirements of residence that are and that she bent had her green card for about five years we have ceremonies going on across the country today very much like this one there are about seven thousand people across the country who will receive their citizenship today on july fourth we have a lot of specials speakers today who are here to congratulate the new citizens we have the mayor of seattle will be our mc today for the event we have governor inslee who will come give congratulatory remarks we have senator maria cantwell who also gives some remarks we have the head of of the the country and our civil society just like those who were born here they have the same rights as a citizen and responsibilities of those anybody who was born in the u s so it's important for them they then gain the right to vote  they can become elected officials they have all kinds of rights that they didn't have prior to being non citizens yes if if those who are eligible and meet our requirements it's a very it's a simple process filing an  application having an interview taking a test we have lots of on line tools to help people study and prepare for the test and then you are at the end of the process you have a wonderful ceremony like the one today  either a big special ceremony like this one or we have ceremonies almost every day in our office and t good afternoon and welcome to our annual independence day naturalization ceremony here at the seattle fan turn my name and course i know and i am the pacific northwest is to director for the department of homeland security's u s citizenship and immigration service my pleasure to welcome you and now i'd like to turn the podium over to our master of ceremonies today wattles mayor ed m thank you and good afternoon and welcome to the twenty sixteen july fourth naturalization ceremony produced by the seattle center united states district court for the western district of washington and the u s citizens immigration services and to the celebration of the hundred and forty eighth anniversary of american independence i'm going to just take a moment and congratulate all of the new citizens today as mayor of seattle there is nothing i enjoy more than being at this ceremony and witnessing you becoming citizens of the united states and it's amazing to see the number of people who are here your family your friends and other loved ones who are here they're excited to support you admire the courage and work it took for you each to come to this country and to become citizens you join thousands and thousands of new americans every year who become citizens on the anniversary of our independence the fourth of july the american story as you've heard many times is the story of immigrants all of us who are here all of us who are citizens have a story about immigration our background it may be generations ago may be centuries ago but somebody in most cases came to this country with the exception of our native americans at some point from some other country for me it was when my grandparents immigrated to this country from ireland you were the newest chapter in that story and you bring to american democracy a sense of hope and freedom and opportunity and despite our struggles the fact that you are here today represents that although we struggle our democracy will be borne once again through your efforts each generation who comes here adds their language their culture and in riches this country today we welcoming five hundred in three of you from eighty five different kind you in their i love it he didn't give me a title i don't have one i don't have a title i help organize an event and i have for almost thirty years and as the mayor was talking about i'm sure that he the the president's father you had no idea that some day his son would be present in ited states the same is my grandmother i am a naturalized citizen and i've been i've been called all those words i have actually been an immigrant a refugee a displaced person a w o p without papers and also turned away at al but i and i was born in croatia but i'm an american like you're going to be very soon but my message to you is don't forget where you came from please don't forget where you came from and why you came to this country and tell your story we all have a story some amazing stories that you all have a story teller to your children your grandchildren anybody that will listen because it's an important part of this country like i said i was born in croatia but i'm an american and by so doing and also remembering where i come from and honoring my country of origin by speaking the language you have the freedom to do that here you eat the foods sing your songs practice your culture you have all the freedom now my family plan practices our culture even though i have been here for a million years now my daughter sang the anthem wearing a c costume in soon you'll meet my little granddaughter who will help with the flag salute and a young man running around here helping me with my grandson so we honor our roots by it is now my honor to introduce the governor of the state of washington oh good afternoon because we have one new american from australia good day mate here in the state of washington we have a lot to be proud of we're proud of mount rainier we're proud of the space needle we're proud of our aerospace or biotech or computer engineers but today were mostly proud of five hundred through five hundred three new americans and you you've come here from so many dispirit countries you represent so many original languages so many different diverse religious beliefs you speak many languages today but from this moment on you have one commonality and i would say to commonalities you are both a new americans but you are also new washingtonians and i hope you take some pride in that here in washington state we have a certain set of unique values we embrace diversity we value a quality we treasure freedom and liberty these are washington values and there's something worth thinking about and because we recognize that those values do not just flow down off like water off not rainier there are things that must be treasured and respected and worked and fought for we have to stand up against intolerance we need to work for freedom and equality and we have to do it time after time this state in this nation does not operate on autopilot it requires americans and washingtonians new and old year after year to fight for these treasured freedoms and this is a time where we need to do it now frankly there's been too much talk of building walls we need to talk of building bridges now i believe that this is very washington in its fundamental perspective i hearken back to one of my favorite washingtonians is a graduate of washington state university of course my favorite back in the day when a tyrant was using the powers of fear and hatred to divide americans a senator joseph mccarthy this washington state took him down he spoke against division and he said this we cannot allow fear to divide us one against another because we are descendants of non fearful men we are not descended from fearful men and now we have which legacy of dissent but today we have a treasured value of new non fearful americans and i want to thank you for standing up to the plate and now regard and i want to thank you for the richness you were going to bring to the to the culture and economy of the state of washington i was thinking of you two nights ago trudy and i were having this wonderful ice cream it's called more is ice cream it's made on being bridge island washington several years ago to immigrants came from brazil and sat just were you were two years ago and they now are given is this  new ice cream in this wonderfully successful company that's what you're going to do for the state of washington you or the sweetness of the state of washington congratulations on what you've done today thank thank you mayor marie i also want to thank all mom for a nother tremendous celebration and continued success thank you to maria who sang the national anthem into pat wright who had lifted our spirits so much today it will soar with us all throughout this celebration and it's an honor to be here with our governor and our mayor and so many washingtonians as we say congratulations to all of you our fellow americans i think president truman said it best being an american is not where your parents came from it is a belief that all men are created equal and that everyone deserves an even break that's why we're here to celebrate independence day because some people of our four founders stood up in the face of oppression and decided to say that in the declaration that all men are created equal was certain unalienable rights of liberty life and the pursuit of happiness and think about it they even said give me liberty or give me death so when we celebrate today we know those are the principles of our nation now in case you didn't catch it i'm maria cantwell or better known as the answer to question number twenty on your civic status who are your two u s senat who's the other one there you go so you two are taking a brave step to be part of our country to fight for our principles and to continue the diversity that has made our nation great as the governor mentioned we just passed seven million people here and it was strengthened by immigrants who are adding to our numbers we are a nation of immigrants built by the hard work of people who came before you the native americans who were here but the italians in the irish and the polish who helped build our middle class the chinese who helped to build an infrastructure that connected east and west to the nice a in the filipino veterans who fought for our country when we needed it most and now these people are here running for congress curing diseases down the street on mercer or doing great things as our governor said and helping grow our economy so on this fourth of july let us remember that it is diversity that makes our nation great that drives our innovation and drives our economy and we should never let the threat of terrorism or a hate crime drive us from an brazing the desert the diversity that has made our nation as we celebrate this fourth of july was so many other washingtonians i have thought so much about why this event is so special and i do love the music it's always great but when you think about it how many times in your life will you be able to be in the same place with people from eighty five different countries so we are with you on your journey the next americans who are going to lay the foundation and the tapestry that is the story of our country and the story of our future thank you my fellow americans