Two months after they filed a federal lawsuit because their naturalization ceremony scheduled for January had been abruptly canceled for no apparent reason, longtime Iowa City residents Sunday and Regina Goshit were finally sworn in as U.S. citizens this week.
“It’s 25 years of waiting; 25 years of being in this country,” Sunday Goshit told the Gazette. “And I’ve been involved in the community a lot. I’ve never felt like I’m not part of the American community. But now it’s completely different.”
Goshit, an adjunct assistant professor of International Studies at the University of Iowa and an instructor of Intercultural Competence at Kirkwood Community College, came to Iowa from Nigeria in 2000 to earn a Ph.D. in Physical Geography at the University of Iowa. He was not planning to stay.
The following year, his wife, Regina, and their children joined him, and the family began to plant roots in Iowa City.
Goshit did earn his Ph.D. at UI, along with two masters degrees. He also earned three certificates and an associate’s degree from Kirkwood. And over the past quarter century, he’s become an integral part of the community.
Goshit has served as president of IC Compassion, a nonprofit that assists immigrants and refugees. He currently serves as president of the Iowa City Foreign Relations County and is on the community advisory board of UIHC’s Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center. He’s worked to help international students and scholars adjust to life in Iowa, and provided cultural competency training to schools, local governments and businesses. Goshit is the founder and co-director of Iowa City’s African Festival of Arts and Culture.
Regina Goshit has worked for 16 years providing support and advocating for people with disabilities in Johnson County. The Goshits are very active in the Church of Nazrene. All four of their children earned masters degrees and have gone on to have successful careers.
“No one deserves U.S citizenship more than him,” Peter Gerlach, executive director of the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council, said at the April news conference on the Iowa City Ped Mall, when the Goshits’ lawsuit was announced. “Because he embodies the values and the work ethic that make America great. He is the best of us. Sunday Goshit is a leader and educator and a mentor who puts others before himself, all in service to a higher calling.”
“I’ve met every requirement, I’ve checked every box, I’ve contributed my expertise, my character and a legacy of educated, hardworking citizens to the state of Iowa,” Sunday Goshit said during the news conference. “To halt the naturalization of a prepared, qualified and vetted resident of 25 years is a suppression of the very due process this country prides itself on.”
The Goshits sued Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency in charge of the naturalization process, to compel it to follow the law and its own regulations and allow them to complete the process and become citizens.
After two decades in Iowa, Sunday and Regina Goshit applied for and received permanent resident status in 2020. On April 25, 2025, they filed their applications to become naturalized citizens. They underwent the final interviews in the naturalization process on Oct. 22. Both Sunday and Regina received letters from the USCIS informing them their swearing-in ceremony would take place at the Federal Courthouse in Cedar Rapids on Jan. 16. But on Dec. 18, the Goshits received notice from USCIS that the ceremony had been canceled.
According to the lawsuit, the notices contained “a two-sentence explanation for the cancellation, providing no reason outside of ‘unforeseen circumstances.’ The cancellation came on the heels of a presidential proclamation that placed Nigeria on a list of restricted countries and paused immigration benefits for foreign nationals.”
On Dec. 16, President Trump issued a proclamation restricting entry and visa issuance to foreign nationals from 39 countries, including Nigeria. The cancellation notices the Goshits received were issued two days later.
Since the Goshits weren’t seeking to enter the country or to receive a visa, Trump’s proclamation should not have applied to them.
The lawsuit was filed at the beginning of April. In May, the couple received an email from USCIS informing them the naturalization process was moving forward. Shortly after that email, they received another informing them their citizenship ceremony was now scheduled for June 10 in Des Moines.
At the news conference in April, Sunday Goshit said he had “full faith in the ability and independence of the judiciary to adjudicate this matter and act justly, ensuring that the law serves as a shield for those who have honored it.” The case didn’t even go to trial before USCIS reversed its decision.
Accompanied by friends and family, the Goshits took their citizenship oaths on Wednesday.
