It was April, just a few months since the new administration took over in the White House, and Cynthia Verduzco walked into an office for the most important interview of her life: She was applying to be a United States citizen.

After she was born in Mexico, her family moved to Los Angeles when she was an infant, then to Newark when she was in middle school.

She raised three kids here. She built her entire life here. For as long as she can remember, the United States was her home.

But when she arrived for her interview at the Department of Homeland Security office in Santa Clara, her husband, Juan, a U.S. citizen, wasn’t allowed to enter with her. Nervous as ever, she stepped into the waiting room and looked up at a television. On the screen: government officials threatening to deport undocumented people.

But Verduzco had a leg up: A team of experts from the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area had been working with her, preparing her for this interview, helping her understand her rights and organize her documents, and offering emotional support along the way.

Fear is one of the weapons being used to keep immigrants from going through the necessary steps to acquire citizenship, institute officials say. But they can help with that.

This year, folks are calling the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area in record numbers seeking to learn their legal rights, receive education about the citizenship process and find emotional support from a team of hard-working experts at an institution that’s over a century old.

In January 2024, the institute received about 8,000 calls from folks looking for help.

One year later, the same month President Donald Trump was sworn in, the institute received more than 16,000 calls.

“People are very concerned,” said Ellen Dumesnil, executive director.

Having moved to Los Angeles from Mexico as a young child, Verduzco had no idea she was living as an undocumented person. Her dad had already been in California on a work visa when her mom moved with her across the border. Her family then welcomed her three younger brothers, all born in the United States, and she never had any reason to think she was an outsider.

It wasn’t until high school that a sudden life change revealed a secret she didn’t know she was keeping.

“I got pregnant,” she said. “And I was filling out paperwork, and it asked for my social security number. I asked my mom, and that’s when I found out I wasn’t born here.”

Her parents had shielded her from the reality that “I could be deported,” she said.

“That’s when I started looking into the amazing program that is DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals),” Verduzco said.

Through DACA, Verduzco was able to stay in the country, finish high school, find employment opportunities and raise three children here. She married her husband in 2018 and applied for a green card through marriage the next year.

The interview process was intense. She was nervous she’d be kicked out of the country while she waited to hear back about her application. But her DACA status kept her safe.

“There are people who have to leave,” she said. “And then you have to either come back if it gets approved or you’re in limbo. And for my case, I would be going to a country that I never had even been to [since infancy]. So it was really scary.”

She was approved. And after waiting the mandatory three years after marrying a U.S. citizen, Verduzco decided to apply for citizenship. That’s when she found the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area.

“Right when I reached out to them, I was able to get an appointment,” she said. “They explained what they were going to need from me. I did one of their workshops. And they helped me fill out my application. Pretty straightforward. They explained to me everything, every single line on the application. I felt so comfortable.”

She also participated in one of the institute’s citizenship test classes, where she was able to bond with folks who were also going through the process.

“It’s a weird thing, to take a high-stakes trivia test,” said Glen Olson, a program manager who runs the education classes at the institute.

Olson offers classes on Zoom and in person in San Francisco, Redwood City, Napa and Petaluma. He sees students from all backgrounds and levels of English competency. Not only is he and his helpful volunteers teaching them the “trivia” portion of the citizenship test, but they’re also preparing them emotionally for the difficult interview process.

Verduzco spent months in Olson’s class, studying, taking practice exams and doing practice interviews with volunteers, before she finally took the test earlier this year.

Tensions were high. But she knew she was prepared.

“That same day, they told me that I passed,” she said.

She walked into the parking lot and her kids, husband, mom, mother-in-law and sister-in-law were there waiting to celebrate with her. Others nearby were celebrating, too.

“It was honestly so beautiful,” she said. “Everyone was clapping and standing up when their country’s name was read off. It was actually super reassuring. Immigrants really do come from all over the world.”

Back at the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area, Dumesnil said times are hard, but her staff of 75 people have never been working harder.

“Everyone is so committed to making a difference in other people’s lives,” she said. “And that shows up in ways that are really pretty phenomenal and — even for me at this point — pretty damn inspirational.”

Back in Newark, Verduzco is living the American dream.

Now that she has her citizenship, she’s planning to go back to college to become a nurse.

Her first daughter, Leila, is 13, and she wants to grow up to be an immigration attorney. Her son, Leo, is 8, and her youngest daughter, Lily, is 3.

“Our happy ending,” she said, “is just being together.”