Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg presided over a naturalization ceremony in New York on Tuesday, telling the new citizens that the U.S. is “a nation made strong by people like you.”

Ginsburg is the first Supreme Court justice to officiate a New York naturalization ceremony in recent years, according to The New York Times.

She reportedly offered to help with the ceremony after hearing about the New York Historical Society’s (NYHS) program for immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship.

“I thought it was a grand idea,” Ginsburg told the Times. “So I wrote to NYHS and said if ever I am in town when they had a naturalization ceremony, I would be glad to participate.”

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Ginsburg told the crowd about her own family’s immigration story, and how her father arrived in the U.S. when he was 13, unable to speak English.

She said that Americans “struggle to achieve greater understanding of each other across racial, religious and socio-economic lines.”

However, she called on the new citizens to work together and help unite the country.

“We have made huge progress, but the work of perfection is scarcely done,” Ginsburg said, the newspaper reported.