Sunday Goshit, a Nigerian professor at the University of Iowa, and his wife had their naturalization ceremony canceled without explanation, despite following all the rules and passing all the tests. The cancellation is likely linked to the Trump administration’s travel ban targeting immigrants from Nigeria and other countries.
Goshit, who’s been living in Iowa City for over 25 years, is now challenging the decision with the help of the University of Iowa College of Law’s Federal Impact Litigation Clinic. He’s arguing that the cancellation was unlawful and violated federal regulations.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) hasn’t provided a clear reason for the cancellation.
Goshit is hoping to get his ceremony rescheduled.
VIA THE GAZETTE:
IOWA CITY — Between shouts of “We love you, Sunday” from a crowd gathered on Iowa City’s Pedestrian Mall on Friday, University of Iowa assistant professor Peter Gerlach said his good friend and Nigeria native Sunday Goshit “became an American in spirit and character a long time ago.”
Now it’s time to make it official.
“No one deserves U.S. citizenship more than him, because he embodies the values and the work ethic that make America great,” Gerlach said during a press conference announcing a lawsuit Goshit and his wife, Regina, filed Friday against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “He is the best of us. Sunday Goshit is a leader, an educator and a mentor, who puts others before himself — all in service to a higher calling.”
But after following all the rules, passing all the tests and staying in compliance with a complicated immigration system for the two-plus decades they’ve been in the country, UI adjunct assistant professor Goshit and his wife in December were “met with an unlawful and arbitrary halt” to their citizenship process.
Despite successfully completing their examinations in October and receiving approval for naturalization in November, the Goshits on Dec. 18 learned their Jan. 16 naturalization oath ceremony had been canceled.
“The impact of this delay is not merely administrative; it is deeply personal and professionally it is stifling,” Goshit, 66, said Friday. “To pass the test of citizenship only to have the final gates locked without legal justification is a secondary exile.
“It creates a state of legal limbo that affects my ability to travel, my peace of mind, and the full realization of the American dream I have already spent half a life building,” he said. “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. To halt the naturalization of a prepared, qualified and vetted resident of 25 years is a subversion of the very due process this country prides itself on.”
The federal notice of the couple’s oath ceremony came two days after President Donald Trump on Dec. 16 issued a proclamation “restricting and limiting entry of foreign nationals to protect the security of the United States.” Specifically, the proclamation restricted entry and visa issuance to immigrants from 39 countries, including Nigeria.
“There are rules that government agencies have to follow — a lot of them are rules that they’ve developed for themselves — however they are still required to follow those rules,” said attorney Katherine Melloy Goettel, who is representing the couple. “That is not what happened here. The Goshits were entitled to multiple processes that they simply did not receive.”
Community pillars
Sunday Goshit left Nigeria in 2000 to pursue a doctorate in geography at the University of Iowa. At first, he told supporters Friday, “I viewed America as a classroom. I didn’t yet know it would become my home.”
The following year, his wife and their four young kids arrived in Iowa City and the family “weaved themselves into their community” — going to church, advancing their careers, watching their kids play soccer, sending them off to college and eventually become grandparents to five.
“The Goshits have lived an ordinary American life in many ways,” according to their lawsuit. “But in many ways, the Goshits are extraordinary.”
In addition to earning a doctorate, Goshit has master’s degrees in geography and information science. He’s an adjunct assistant professor in international studies at the University of Iowa, and Regina Goshit has worked as a direct support professional for the past 16 years, supporting and advocating for Iowa City residents with disabilities.
The couple has put their four children through college — with little financial aid — all of whom now have graduate degrees, according to the lawsuit. And the family’s community engagement has evolved through a growing list of nonprofits — with Sunday Goshit serving for four years as president of IC Compassion, a faith-based nonprofit organization in Iowa City dedicated to providing low-cost immigration services to immigrants and refugees.
He’s currently president of the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council, promoting Iowans’ understanding of international issues, and Goshit serves on the community advisory board of the UI Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.
As founder of the African Festival of Arts and Culture, an annual Iowa City event celebrating the contributions and culture of Africans in Iowa, Goshit in 2024 earned the “Better Together 2030 Excellence in Action Catalyst Award” for establishing the event.
“The lives he has touched and inspired are too many to recount,” his friend and colleague Gerlach said. “Sunday Goshit is a family man. He and his wife and four children, five grandchildren, all (live) in the U.S. They regularly visit their kids around the country who have, with his guidance and resilience, over the years made wonderful lives of their own as immigrant and first-generation Americans.
“How amazing would it be to have Sunday as a grandpa? Am I right?”
Gerlach shared Goshit’s work as a faith leader, preaching in local and small rural churches “with a thick, beautiful Nigerian accent” his devotion to Christ and his values of love, compassion, humility, integrity, forgiveness and justice.
“Every Wednesday, he co-leads the food pantry at IC Compassion,” Gerlach said. “During the pandemic, he would get up early to pick up food items from Panera Bread and deliver them to families across the community.”
‘Act justly’
The Goshits since arriving in the United States have never let their immigration status lapse and in June 2020 became permanent lawful residents as green card holders. In April 2025, they applied for naturalization and in October passed an initial examination, receiving notice their applications were recommended for approval.
Both got their N-445 notice of naturalization oath ceremony in November, scheduling the event for Jan. 16 at the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids.
But a month later — following Trump’s proclamation — both received follow-up notices that “due to unforeseen circumstances, (USCIS) has had to cancel the previously scheduled oath ceremony.” By Jan. 1, the government had placed a hold on all pending applications involving foreign nationals from countries listed in Trump’s proclamation.
But the cases that were supposed to be placed on hold were those that hadn’t yet received approval.
“The Goshits have already received an approval on their naturalization application, bringing them outside the scope of the ‘hold,’” according to the lawsuit.
The Goshits’ immigration attorney in March reached out to the government seeking reasons their ceremony was canceled, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services cited an earlier proclamation and policy imposing a “hold and review of all pending asylum applications and all benefit applications filed by aliens from high-risk countries” as giving them the authority to cancel the Goshits’ naturalization ceremony.
“The Dec. 2 policy does not apply to the Goshits because Nigeria is not mentioned anywhere in the June 4 proclamation and because the Goshits entered the United States in 2000 and 2001 — 20 years prior to the date that triggers the ‘comprehensive rereview,’” according to the lawsuit.
The Goshits through their attorneys are accusing the government of violating administrative procedure, abusing their discretion and failing to follow their own rules, and they’re seeking a court order that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services schedule the Goshits’ naturalization ceremony
“I remain steadfast in my belief in the separation of powers that defines American democracy,” Goshit said Friday. “And I place my 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.”