Claude Lemieux, NHL Hockey Player, to Become U.S. Citizen in Phoenix Ceremony

NHL Player Claude Lemieux, originally from Canada, will become a U.S. citizen in a ceremony this Friday in Phoenix with 99 other immigrants. Lemieux, 43, a Valley resident, is a comeback kid who now plays with the San Jose Sharks after a stint with a People's Republic of China team,...

By Ray Stern

June 24, 2009

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NHL Player Claude Lemieux, originally from Canada, will become a U.S. citizen in a ceremony this Friday in Phoenix with 99 other immigrants.

Lemieux, 43, a Valley resident, is a comeback kid who now plays with the San Jose Sharks after a stint with a People's Republic of China team, the China Sharks. He was formerly the president of the Phoenix Roadrunners and has won the Stanley Cup with three different teams.

Scroll down for the news release from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services:

Pro Hockey Player Claude Lemieux to Become U.S. Citizen

PHOENIX, Arizona -U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will welcome 100 Arizona residents as new U.S. citizens on Friday, June 26, 2009 at the Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. Courthouse.

Among the new Americans will be Valley resident Claude Lemieux, originally from Canada, who will share his immigration experiences at the ceremony. Lemieux, of the San Jose Sharks, returned this past season to the National Hockey League (NHL) at the age of 43. He was a member of 4 Stanley Cup-winning teams over his 20-year NHL career. Lemieux played with the Phoenix Coyotes for 3 seasons beginning in 2000 and is a former president of the Phoenix Roadrunners.

In FY2008, USCIS welcomed more than 1,050,000 citizens during naturalization ceremonies across the United States, including 24,925 in Arizona of which 19,472 were in Phoenix. The USCIS Phoenix Field Office serves the counties of Apache, Coconino, Gila, Greenlee, La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, Yavapai, and Yuma.

EVENT: Naturalization Ceremony

DATE & TIME: Friday, June 26, 2009 at 10:00 AM

LOCATION: Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. District Court

401 W. Washington Street, Phoenix, Arizona

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.