Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Carlos Ruiz waves an American flag at the end of a naturalization ceremony for 60 new American citizens on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, aboard the USS Bataan. Ruiz, a native of Mexico, is a naturalized citizen. The Navy hosted the ceremony aboard the amphibious assault ship docked in the port of Miami during the city’s Fleet Week. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)

MIAMI — Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Carlos Ruiz talked Tuesday about becoming a U.S. citizen as he watched 60 new Americans swear allegiance to the United States for the first time aboard the USS Bataan.

“In the ceremony like this, it doesn’t hit you until — you’ll notice the people are all staring at their [naturalization] certificates — you see your name on that certificate, and it feels like you’re just being born again,” Ruiz said, recalling the moment the magnitude of his decision dawned on him. “You feel like now you’re a card-carrying U.S. citizen. You feel like, ‘I am part of it. I could do anything now.’ ”

The top enlisted Marine smiled wide as he led the newest group of American citizens in the Pledge of Allegiance from a stage set up inside the amphibious assault ship docked this week at the port of Miami for its first Fleet Week. Some 12 years earlier, it was Ruiz — already a Marine gunnery sergeant and serving as a drill instructor — affirming his allegiance to the United States.

Ruiz continues to carry a copy of his naturalization certificate with him in the form of a photograph on his phone. Just in case, he said, “no one believes I am a U.S. citizen.”

Ruiz and Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro participated in the ceremony Tuesday hosted aboard the Navy ship as symbol of American might for its newest citizens. Like Ruiz, Del Toro is a naturalized citizen, who immigrated from Cuba as a child refugee and earned his citizenship in 1978 just before entering the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md.

Del Toro said he wanted to host a naturalization ceremony aboard the Bataan this week as a reminder that there is a price for America’s freedoms. The ship, he noted, is named in honor of the American prisoners of war who in 1942 were forced by their Japanese captors to endure a brutal 65-mile trek to a prisoner-of-war camp in the Philippines during World War II. Some 1,000 Americans died on the march.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro congratulates a new American citizen during a naturalization ceremony Tuesday, May 7, 2024, aboard the USS Bataan. The Navy hosted the ceremony aboard the amphibious assault ship docked in the port of Miami during the city’s Fleet Week. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)

“Freedom does not come cheap,” the Navy secretary said after the ceremony. “It’s not necessarily free. It has to be earned, and it is earned by the citizens of our great country, people who come to this nation from all across the world, you know, to live the American dream and fulfill the American dream.”

Del Toro implored the 60 new Americans who came from 24 countries to find some way to serve and give back to their new country. Perhaps, he joked, they should join the Navy or Marine Corps, telling them he could swear them into the military shortly after the ceremony.

He used his and Ruiz’s experiences as examples of what immigrants can accomplish when afforded the opportunities. Del Toro graduated from the Naval Academy in 1983 and served 22 years in the Navy as a surface warfare officer, reaching the rank of commander before retiring. In 2021, he became Navy secretary, the top civilian in charge of the Navy and Marine Corps.

“I’ve come to believe that what truly makes this country great is you,” Del Toro told the new American citizens. “Every single one of you sitting in those seats — and I don’t care whether you’re a maid working in a hotel room like my mother did for many, many years or you grow up to perhaps become the secretary of the Navy — you and the role that you play in our country is as significant as anyone else in making this great country the country that it is.”

Ruiz said he hoped some of the new citizens would at least consider military service. Without the Marine Corps, Ruiz said, he doubts he would be an American citizen.

Sixty new Americans from 24 countries are sworn in as U.S. citizens during a naturalization ceremony aboard the USS Bataan on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. The Bataan was visiting Miami as part of its Fleet Week. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)

The top enlisted Marine — whose job is to advocate for the enlisted force and advise the Marine commandant on enlisted issues — came to the United States as an 11-year-old from his native Mexico when his parents wanted him to attend better schools and learn English. His mother moved him to Buckeye, Ariz., from where he enlisted in the Corps after graduating high school.

Ruiz served for years — deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan and earning a Bronze Star Medal with combat “V” for valor — before beginning his efforts to become a U.S. citizen.

At times, he considered leaving the Marine Corps and returning to Mexico. But ultimately, he said, the Marines and the United States felt like home. Last year, 29 years into his service, he was selected to become the Corps’ top enlisted Marine.

“I’d like to say that without the Marine Corps I still would have fallen in love with this country anyway, and I would have chosen to stay,” Ruiz said. “But the people that I met in the service, they are what pulled me toward this, and they made me realize this is pretty awesome.”

Ruiz was inspired to earn his citizenship after his father earned his and as he realized he would need a security clearance — granted only to American citizens — to continue to serve. It was a lot of effort, especially working on earning his citizenship while also working to make new Marines at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.

“It’s a long journey,” he said. “And then it happens. And it’s surreal.”

After the ceremony on Tuesday, Ruiz said he would probably flip through his phone to look at his naturalization certificate and relive his efforts to become an American citizen. He said he hoped his adopted country would give the new Americans sworn in Tuesday the kind of opportunities it has provided him.

“Just a kid from Mexico, right, could barely speak English, and somehow here I am,” Ruiz said. “The people here today, they’re going to keep staring at their certificates with their names on it, and I know what they’re feeling. It felt like [I was] watching myself in their chairs. And they’re probably going to go do amazing things.”