Thousands of Mass. immigrants set for citizenship

BOSTON (AP) -- Thousands of immigrants living in Massachusetts are set to swear allegiance to the United States during a naturalization ceremony in Boston.

Nearly 2,400 immigrants from 132 countries will take the Oath of Allegiance at TD Garden on Tuesday afternoon.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says this is one of the largest groups of foreign-born residents to be naturalized at the home of the Boston Bruins.

Former Boston mayor and U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Ray Flynn, will address the new Americans.

The ceremony will see about 100 volunteers from the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition register the new citizens as voters.

In 2010, Massachusetts had the seventh-largest population of legal immigrants in the country, with about 320,000 people holding green cards given to legal permanent U.S. residents.