July 3, 2025, was one of the best days of my life. After decades of dreaming and a challenging immigration journey, on that day I finally became an American.

As a naturalized citizen who chose to be here out of reverence for this country’s founding principles, I believe the U.S. should be more welcoming of others like me who want to build a life here in freedom and work to preserve those values, as I do. But the door that once welcomed me is slowly closing.

America reached me well before I reached its shores. I was born in Argentina, and have wanted to become an American citizen since I was four years old and first learned about this nation.

Growing up, I was obsessed with American culture, which I consumed through television shows, movies, literature and video games. Even from a young age, I could sense something was valuably different about it, and I wanted to be a part of this culture for more reasons than I could fully understand. When, at age nine, I finally got to see the U.S. myself on a family trip to Florida, everything I had read about and watched on TV became real: America was a place of unparalleled abundance, where seemingly anyone could go and make their dreams a reality. It felt bountiful, safe, limitless.

I appreciated Argentina overall and never had to face hardship or poverty there, even after the

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