A University of Wyoming graduate was one of five people who went through a naturalization ceremony hosted by Trump and played during the Republican National Convention event on Tuesday night.
The pre-recorded ceremony featured people from Bolivia, Lebanon, India, Sudan and Ghana, and allowed Trump to read each person’s biography.
President Trump said Neimat Awadelseid, originally from the Sudan, has been a “lawful permanent resident since 2012.”
During her biography Trump said Awadelseid is married with three children, before mentioning her Masters and Ph.D from the University of Wyoming for “animal nutrition”.
“Great place, great state,” said Trump. Trump said she is a veterinarian, and has been a substitute teacher for the Alexandria Public School system since 2006, before congratulating her.
A spokesperson at the University of Wyoming said records show that a Neimat Awadelseid graduated from UW with a Ph.D in animal science in 1995. She is also listed in the substitute teachers section of the Alexandria Public School system.
The full video can be seen below, with Awadelseid’s section starting around the 6:20 mark.
Tuesday’s installment of the Republican National Convention used the naturalization ceremony, as well as a highly anticipated speech by First Lady Melania Trump, to soften Trump’s image on immigration.
During his 2016 campaign, Trump regularly made tough statements against immigrants, and promised strong immigration policies as a main feature of his platform.
He has followed through during his administration in numerous ways. Among those is a controversial wall along the U.S. and Mexico border that so far has cost more than $11 billion, a policy of separating asylum-seekers from their children at the U.S. border, attempting to end DACA, which gave people brought into the U.S. illegally as children a path to citizenship, and banning travel from certain countries with a high Muslim population.
According to the National Foundation for American Policy, legal immigration is expected to decline by half between 2016 and 2021.
