U.S. President Barack Obama told immigrants being sworn in as U.S. citizens at the National Archives in Washington on Tuesday that "in the Syrian seeking refuge today, we should see the Jewish refugee of World War II."

At a naturalization ceremony, held on the 224th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights to the U.S. constitution, Obama spoke of America's heritage as an immigrant nation, but added: "we have not always lived up to our own ideal," citing Africans brought to the country as slaves and later, during World War II, discrimination of Germans and Italians in the United States and the imprisonment of Japanese Americans in internment camps.

The mistakes of the past should not be repeated, he said, urging that Syrian refugees of today be viewed as Jewish refugees of World War II.