Tweety Bird and 18,000 Angelenos Become U.S. Citizens!

A previous Immigrant of the Day, Eddie "Piolín" (Tweety Bird) Sotelo is a Los Angeles radio personality, born in Mexico in 1972. His influential show "Piolín por la Mañana" is in Spanish on KSCA in Southern California.  Sotelo has interviewed Senator Barack Obama on the show.

Sotelo has described own experience of living and working in the United States as an undocumented immigrant. Sotelo regularized his immigration status and now lives legally in Los Angeles.  He urged his listeners in spring 2006 to take to the streets in the immigration marches -- and thousands listened!

Now Sotelo is a U.S. citizen! According to USA Today, record crowds of immigrants — more than 18,000 in all — took citizenship oaths in Los Angeles yesterday, a showing credited to rising fees and a heated debate over immigration.  One of the many new citizens, Eduardo "Piolin" Sotelo was taking the advice he has frequently dispensed on the nation's most popular Spanish-language radio show.

Sotelo, who came to the country illegally 22 years ago in a car trunk, chronicled his own citizenship process as he urged fellow Latina/os to seek citizenship at a time when immigration is still a hot-button issue and a presidential election is underway. The need for three separate ceremonies at the Los Angeles Convention Center — a local record for the number of people sworn in one day — reflected a 350% increase in citizenship applications last summer before immigration fees jumped from $400 to $675.

KJ