CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A U.S. Army veteran was going to be forced to leave the country this coming Monday if his application for citizenship didn't come through.
But it finally did. And today in Chicago, he was sworn in.
Ten days ago, 41-year-old Miguel Perez Jr. had his citizenship interview thanks to a pardon from Gov. Pritzker.
The clock was ticking. If his citizenship wasn't approved by Monday, he'd have to leave. It was something he said he tried not to think about.
"I kind of just blocked it," Perez said. "I kind of put up a wall. And I did not think about it. I just put my faith in God."
While at lunch today, he got the call he'd been waiting for — and rushed over to take the citizenship oath in a private ceremony.
"You repeat after the person who's swearing you in," he said of the ceremony. "But to me it didn't feel like I was repeating something that someone else was saying. It was something that was coming from the heart."
Perez grew up here in Chicago but never had his citizenship. He served in the Army and later did prison time for a drug conviction.
He was deported last year to Mexico but everything changed when the governor granted him clemency this summer. Now, he is an official citizen and can be reunited with his two children.
"Me taking the oath for the constitution, the country and the flag — it's something that's in my heart," he said. "It's always been in my heart."