A Mexican university with a branch campus in San Antonio, Texas will now offer the first-ever college-level course in how to become a U.S. citizen. The school is Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), one of the most recognized universities in all of Latin America.
The 30-hour course is slated to begin next week, reports local ABC affiliate KENS. Classes will meet once each week on Tuesday nights. The cost is $110. Course instructors will be bilingual.
At about the midpoint of the course, students will be able to experience a mock interview with a real, live inspector from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. As Campus Reform notes, this U.S. government official will be someone who is himself (or herself) a naturalized American citizen.
“The special thing about this officer they are going to interview them with empathy because this is a person that has gone through the process,” UNAM event coordinator Jake Pacheco told KENS. Instructors will also cover American history including current events. “The students will be prepared based on writing, reading and civics,” Pacheco explained.
Presumably, students will also learn something about the various paperwork and the other steps required in the long and sometimes complex citizenship process. Pacheco explained that one of the goals of the course is to inform students about the perils of the substantial visa fraud industry. “It’s important to educate the community to give them that strength, that power,” he told the ABC station.
The main UNAM campus is located in Mexico City. The school has a throng of satellite campuses throughout Mexico. Additionally, there are three small campuses in the United States (in San Antonio, Chicago and Los Angeles) and one in Canada.
Texas accounts for the fourth-most naturalizations among the 50 states each year.
