Poughkeepsie, NY – Today, Chairman Gregg Pulver addressed 145 new American citizens at Dutchess County’s Naturalization ceremony, hosted at the Family Partnership Center. These new citizens hail from 36 countries spanning the entire globe. The Honorable Edward McLoughlin, New York State Acting Supreme Court Justice and Dutchess County Court, presided and County Clerk Brad Kendall administered the naturalization oath.
Knowing each person’s journey to America is different, Chairman Pulver described how war and religious persecution caused his family to flee Germany. In 1710, they settled in Dutchess County and the Pulver family has farmed in Dutchess ever since. To honor his ancestors, his family held a 300th anniversary party in 2010. Pulver expressed hoped that “you all remember the day you first arrived in this country and that your families never forget the sacrifices you have endured to bring them to this wonderful land.”
In his speech, Chairman Pulver highlighted the importance of technology driven immigration and its effects on Dutchess County. He spoke of the large amount of immigrants working at places like IBM and GlobalFoundries and how these companies have created a technology culture in the region which further encourages investments by other companies. He pointed to Health Quest’s expansion of their electronic-medical-records department and Marist College who recently began to offer a degree in data science as evidence of the tech culture at work. Statewide a third of high-tech companies are founded by immigrants which ranks New York fourth in the nation.
“America may have been founded by farmer-legislators, like myself” said Chairman Gregg Pulver. “However, our current government must be a mix of all peoples and backgrounds in order to legislate effectively and represent our constituents equally and fairly.”
