It was a breezy Saturday in May, but the Western High campus buzzed with activity.

The parking lot was packed with vehicles. Players drilled on the football field, a volleyball tournament was going on in a gym, and on the east end of the venerable campus another group was assembled.

Their high school years far behind most, these people gathered not for sport or academics, but to continue what for some has been an arduous marathon toward American citizenship. Approximately 50 legal immigrants, many longtime Southern Nevada residents, turned out to participate in a workshop meant to take the fear and some of the frustration out of a complex citizenship process that these days is widely vilified. Staffed almost exclusively with volunteers, the monthly workshop was sponsored by Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN), Mi Familia Vota, Culinary Union Local 226, American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the Asian Community Development Council with assistance from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. There were far more volunteers than immigrant applicants.

If that sounds like a lot of effort expended on a few dozen strangers, you’re only seeing part of the picture. Some may want to write off this effort to progressive political action groups grooming new Democrats, and there’s an element of truth in that. But there’s a lot more going on.

In an age in which a raging president has vilified immigrants generally, there’s something wonderfully American about so many people coming together to help shine a light on the path to citizenship for immigrants courageous enough to take that step. Americans obsessed with the immigration issue would have to work to find fault with the workshop -- not that the toughest talkers ever seem all that interested in lending a hand.

It wasn’t a clandestine operation, or a back door to citizenship. To start the application process, participants had to have a legal permanent resident card for at least five years, or three years if they’re married to a U.S. citizen. They have to have good moral character, submit to an in-depth legal vetting, and later show the ability to pay the government a $725 processing fee.

While some of the applicants appear to be in their 30s, many others were much older. One woman, a longtime Culinary Union employee, was in her 70s. Once the lawyers have vetted the paperwork -- because of  high volume -- the process itself can take six months to one year in Southern Nevada and about half as long in Reno. Since 2016, PLAN’s Laura Martin says, the fairs have assisted nearly 2,000 immigrants statewide apply for citizenship.

Although the citizen workshop is promoted in paid and free media, Mi Familia’s Margarita Salas Crespo says volunteers spend weeks getting the word about its existence in immigrant neighborhoods.

“Any immigration process, in general, is very complex,” she says. “So we try to do our best here to just educate them about the process and walk them through it and also provide that legal service and legal review. Because, obviously, we are not lawyers ourselves and we cannot represent ourselves as lawyers.”

The Asian council’s associate director Marc Matsuo sees the irony of so much tough talk on immigration in a nation full of them.

“I think it’s really important, if only because of the fact that all of us came to the United States as immigrants, right?” he asks. “And so, what’s going on now in the world, you know, people are afraid, people are scared and don’t know what’s going to happen in their lives, if they’re going to be deported. And it goes across the board. It’s not only about Hispanics and Latinos, it’s all of us. All Asian culture.”

While many applicants at the workshops are Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia and even Cuba, officials say immigrants from China, the Philippines, Thailand, and South Korea have also been helped. But that just reflects the changing demographics in the real Las Vegas.

Many roads, one destination: American citizenship.

John L. Smith is a longtime Las Vegas journalist and author. Contact him at [email protected]. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith.