Some people think that citizenship ceremonies should be used for all kinds of other purposes, such as religious prostelytizing. Or political prostelytizing. I'm inclined to think they should be used for the sole purpose of, oh I don't know, swearing in new citizens. Radical, huh?
But The Miami Herald, along with several other news outlets, reports that an "unknown" Florida Republican organization thinks differently.
Just before the new citizens left the June 29 event, an immigration official directing the swearing-in urged the them to stop by a voter registration table -- a not uncommon sight at naturalization ceremonies.
But this table was unusual: Those handing out forms were Republican volunteers -- and the party affiliation box had been checked off ahead of time to make all of the new voters members of the GOP.
All of it was suspicious to Linda Cross, who was there to watch her husband, Dario Cruz, take his citizenship oath. Cross asked one of the women sitting at the table in the foyer of the University of North Florida auditorium whether there were any forms that left the party affiliation blank.
She was told no.
''They said they didn't have any forms that weren't checked,'' Cross recalled. 'She said, `We're a Republican organization.' ''
What's particularly insidious about this is the fact that many new citizens come from countries where you are, shall we say, 'strongly encouraged' to register and vote for a particular political party.
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