I felt my first real twinge of regret about not being a U.S. citizen in 2008, when Barack Obama was elected president.

Back in 1992, the American university where my father worked as a professor had helped secure green cards for my whole family. (I was 11 at the time.) I had renewed my green card twice since then. People often asked why I hadn’t applied for citizenship. This is the life I’m used to, I’d say: smugly returning jury notices, watching elections from a safe distance, standing in endless queues for travel visas, enduring taxation without representation.

…

California Supreme Court Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, also a naturalized citizen, gave the final speech at my naturalization ceremony. He exhorted us to believe that we belong here, that we are welcome. He told us that no one can tell us otherwise, “no matter how rich or poor they are, no matter which house they live in.” Then he paused. In that pause, the word “house” seemed to grow a capital letter and acquire the word “White” before it.