José Andrés’s Citizenship Delayed, Plans to Give Sandwiches to Furloughed Workers

For someone whose citizenship ceremony might be delayed, José Andrés is taking it pretty well: the Spanish-born chef, who was scheduled to be sworn in as a naturalized citizen next week, has offered free sandwiches from all of his restaurants to furloughed government employees every day between the hours of 3-5 PM.

According to Andrés’s Twitter, the US government really pulled one over him by shutting down:”I guess I will not become a citizen yet next week,” he tweeted.

There is still hope for him: since it’s funded by user fees and not Congressional appropriation, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are operating at 95% capacity. Several offices we called confirmed that their naturalization ceremonies were still on schedule. (However, once the federal courts stop receiving funding and get stripped down to only essential workers and cases, citizenship ceremonies might be put on hold.)

Still, to all the other federal government employees on forced furloughs, Andrés is reaching out to their poor, starving stomachs (seriously, federal employee salaries are terrible):

a free sandwich on me, people furloughed, btwn 3-5 pm, everyday until it’s over. @jaleotapasbar dc md va @ZaytinyaDC @oyameldc, Gov’t ID!

— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) October 1, 2013

We hope his naturalization ceremony goes as scheduled, because as we’ve learned over the years, ain’t nobody out there who loves America more than this dude.

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