ATLANTA—The Coalition of Refugee Service Agencies (CRSA) will have the 2018 New Americans Celebration at the Georgia State Capitol with events on Tuesday, March 13, and Thursday, March 15. The celebration brings together more than 300 new Americans and community supporters in order to engage with Georgia’s lawmakers and show support for refugees and immigrants.

The New Americans Celebration is comprised of two separate events.

The U.S. citizenship naturalization ceremony will honor former refugees as they are sworn in as citizens in front of friends, family, community members and lawmakers, in the heart of Georgia’s Capitol building. The ceremony begins at 1 p.m. on March 13 in the Capitol rotunda. Derreck Kayongo, CEO of the Center for Civil and Human Rights, will present the keynote address.

The Capitol Outreach Day will take place on March 15. This year, advocates will be focused specifically on opposing Senate Bill 452, which requires that local law enforcement and court officials report to U.S. immigration enforcement if they learn that a suspect is in the country illegally.

The outreach program begins at 8 a.m. at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, 48 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, SW, Atlanta. Advocates will then go to the Capitol to meet with legislators.

Speakers for the outreach program will be Rep. Bee Nguyen; Imam SH Salahadin Wazir, Masjid Al-Momineen; Msgr. Henry Gracz, pastor of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception; and Mustafa Alsaeedi, refugee, Georgia State University student and operations specialist.

The New Americans Celebration provides lawmakers and citizens with an opportunity to meet and engage with Georgia’s new American community and to learn their stories firsthand. Attendees will gain new insight into how their state legislature works and how to reach out to elected officials.

Catholic Charities Atlanta is a member agency of CRSA.