4th July: Nearly 14,000 immigrants will be sworn in as US citizens on Independence Day

The group is slightly smaller than the number who were sworn in last year when around 15,000 immigrants became US citizens

New US citizens smiling after becoming citizens during a ceremony at the New York Public Library on 3 July (REUTERS)

Nearly 14,000 immigrants will become US citizens as a part of dozens of naturalisation ceremonies held in America as the country celebrates Independence Day.

Thousands of immigrants will pledge their allegiance to the United States as a part of 27 ceremonies across the country.

“When oath ceremonies are tied to the Fourth of July, it’s a message that immigrants believe in this country,” Joshua Hoyt, the executive director of the immigrant rights organisation the National Partnership for New Americans, told ABC News.

US immigration data shows that the group of immigrants who will become American citizens on Wednesday is slightly smaller than the group last year, when 15,000 people swore their allegiance to the United States.

The ceremonies themselves are usually held in government buildings or in public, and some locations take on a special resonance given their history.

That includes historic sites like the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia — the house where America’s flag was supposedly first sewn — where the Daughters of the American Revolution, a non-profit group who are direct descendants of those involved in America’s fight for independence, have held naturalisations for children.

Other locations have included less historic, but still iconic, locations such as the observatory in the World Trade Centre in downtown Manhattan.

The ceremonies come as the US wrestles with its stance on immigration, with President Donald Trump championing strict policies at the border that he says will make America safer.

Those policies have led to the imprisonment of border crossers who enter the United States illegally, even those who make credible fear claims to the US government seeking asylum.

Mr Trump’s administration has separated more than 2,000 immigrant children from their parents because of those policies, which have explicitly called for “zero tolerance” of illegal border crossings in an attempt to deter migrants from coming to the US.

Mr Trump, after a swift public backlash, signed an executive order to stop family separations of immigrants last month.