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Beach resident naturalizes after 20-year journey

By Staff | Feb 20, 2019

Clegg took the Oath of Allegiance with 37 others, representing 20 countries altogether. JESSE MEADOWS

The Town of Fort Myers Beach gained a new voter last week.

After a 20-year struggle, Nadia Clegg finally got to take her oath of citizenship.

She’s lived on the Beach for six years, since she happened to meet her husband, Ronald Clegg, in an elevator on the south end of the island.

He was a retired colonel from the U.S Army’s Airborne Division.

She was a housekeeper who had been promised work in South Florida, but when she arrived, the company told her they wouldn’t have a job opening for several weeks.

Clegg took the Oath of Allegiance with 37 others, representing 20 countries altogether. JESSE MEADOWS

So she came to stay with a friend in a condo building on Bay Beach Lane, and thanks to that chance meeting, she never left.

Originally from Morocco, Clegg first came to the U.S. for vacation in 1996 with her then-husband, a Moroccan police officer.

“I fell in love with it here,” she said.

“In 1999, I came with my son, and they gave me a 10-year visa. My ex-husband followed me here. Domestic violence and abuse got him deported. My case was in immigration for eight years, no papers, no nothing. I didn’t know if they were going to deport me, but I didn’t give up.”

Clegg didn’t speak any English when she arrived.

A brand new citizen, Nadia poses with her son, Aiman Bennroua, and her mother, Heneia Fathe. JESSE MEADOWS

She saw her neighbor’s 3-year-old daughter learning English words from cartoons on TV, and decided to teach herself by watching shows like Tom and Jerry and practicing with her co-workers.

She worked odd jobs in Boston to support her children until 2008, when she was granted a work permit through some kind of miracle, she said.

“The day of my hearingI was telling my story about what happened to me in Morocco, what happened to me here with my ex-husband, and I was crying,” she said.

The judge was empathetic, but she told Clegg her case was weak, and she couldn’t stay.

Then, the prosecutor asked to speak with the judge in private.

Clegg’s neighbors on Bay Beach Lane were excited to support her at the ceremony. From Left to Right: Tom Corp, Kathy Daly, Nadia Clegg, Kent Cummings, Nancy Kaufmann, and Gary Kauffmann. JESSE MEADOWS

“They went outside, they came in together, I don’t know what happened, but the judge came to me, she gave me a hug, and she said, welcome to America.”

But her joy was not without sorrow – her 20-year-old son was deported the same year, after getting caught up in “the wrong place at the wrong time” and being arrested.

The work permit allowed her the freedom of steady, legal employment, but without a green card that gave her permanent residence, Clegg was not allowed to leave and re-enter the country.

That meant she hasn’t been able to see her son since 2008.

He went to live with family in Morocco, but because he grew up in America and spoke English, not Arabic or French, he couldn’t find work.

“It was hard for me, because I didn’t know what to do,” she said.

She had a younger son who had also been granted a work permit, so she made the difficult decision to stay in the U.S. despite her family being separated.

She may miss her family, but she doesn’t miss Morocco.

“There’s no freedom, especially for women. They kill something inside of you. Women are like nothing. It’s not like here, where women are something. You have your voice,” she said.

Clegg spent five years with her second husband in Fort Myers Beach before he passed away last July.

A few weeks ago, she buried him in Arlington Cemetery.

It was a full military burial, with a 21-gun salute and a flag folded by soldiers that is traditionally given to the deceased’s wife.

“I gave the flag to his son,” she said.

Clegg applied for citizenship a year ago.

The process usually takes 6 months, but due to an 87 percent increase in pending naturalization applications, according to a report by the National Partnership for New Americans, Clegg’s year-long wait has become the average.

Though her husband didn’t live to see her become a citizen, her naturalization ceremony happened to fall on Valentine’s Day last week.

Several of her neighbors from Bay Beach Lane came out to support her, along with her younger son and her mother, who was visiting from Morocco.

Clegg said she loves the friends she’s made here.

“It’s a beautiful island, with beautiful people,” she said.

Smiling in a new black dress, Clegg sat in the front row of 37 people from 20 different countries who were being naturalized at the U.S. Immigration Services Office in Fort Myers last week and took her oath to become an American.

That oath opens several doors for immigrants.

They can now apply for a passport, register to vote, work for the government, and apply to bring their family members to join them in the U.S.

Clegg is excited to get her passport and go visit her eldest son in Morocco after spending a decade without him.

And she has dreams for herself, too.

“I want to go to hairdresser school, to have a hair salon for me, and a business,” she said.

“Everybody dreams, but I never thought one day I was going to become (an American citizen).”