41 people from 23 countries

SYRACUSE -- There was a very moving ceremony today in the U.S. District Courtroom of Senior Judge Frederick Scullin, as 41 new citizens from 23 different countries took the oath of citizenship together.

Sunil Shirkant Mehendale, from India, who came here to obtain graduate degrees and embrace a better life, took the podium to explain why he felt so privileged to become a new U.S. citizen. 

A representative from Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll's office explained why it was such a privilege for them to take the oath together here. Syracuse, he explained, is the birthplace of democracy. It was here - 1,000 years ago -  that five tribes of native Americans came together at Onondaga Lake to form the Iroquois Confederacy.