For those of you who wrote to tell me non-citizens couldn’t join the service:
From Nexis:
Copyright 2004 El Paso Times (El Paso, TX)
All Rights Reserved
El Paso TimesDecember 6, 2004 Monday
SECTION: A SECTION; SPECIAL REPORT: FIGHTING FOR CITIZENSHIP; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1297 words
HEADLINE: Fighting for citizenship;
Area soldier finally becomes citizenBYLINE: By Louie Gilot
BODY:
El Paso TimesSeven years ago, Roman Antonio Guardado Villagran accomplished his childhood dream.
He became a soldier.
He trained at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., then fought in Bosnia and now in Iraq. All that time, Guardado, who grew up in Fabens, was a Mexican citizen with a green card.
Guardado, a sergeant with the 1st Cavalry Division, based in Fort Hood, Texas, is one of about 31,000 so-called green card soldiers, men and women from 30 countries on active duty in the U.S. military. Many of them are fighting — and dying — in Iraq under the flag of a country in which they can’t vote.
This year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has made a priority of naturalizing them.
“There is no bigger priority with this agency than to take care of the military,” said Raymond P. Adams, the agency’s district director in El Paso.
And this:
Copyright 2004 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
October 27, 2004 Wednesday Home Edition
SECTION: Atlanta & the World; Pg. 6F
LENGTH: 499 words
HEADLINE: Mexican soldier gains citizenship;
Rites are 1st outside U.S.BYLINE: RON MARTZ
SOURCE: AJC
BODY:
Army Reserve Sgt. Jose Serna of Chamblee has spent much of the last three years on active duty serving in such diverse and occasionally dangerous locations as Fort Bragg, N.C., Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.Long absences from home and family and the prospect of being killed or wounded are sometimes expected of citizens in times of war.
But until Oct. 1, Serna was a noncitizen, one of an estimated 37,000 in the United States military who face the same sacrifices and hazards as citizens but without the same benefits.
On that Friday at Bagram Air Base outside the capital of Kabul, Serna raised his right hand and took the oath as an American citizen. He was among 17 citizens sworn in that day in the first overseas naturalization ceremony for members of the military.
Previously, service members could be naturalized only in the United States.
“It was very sentimental. It was like a dream. You’re not sure that it’s really happening.” Serna, 28, a native of Mexico, said in a recent telephone call from Afghanistan.
Since that ceremony, officials of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have conducted similar events for service members in Iraq, Germany, Japan and South Korea.
These new citizens are the beneficiaries of an executive order signed by President Bush on July 3, 2003, designed to speed up the often lengthy and frustrating naturalization process for members of the military.
Immigration officials say that as of Oct. 1, more than 18,000 service members have applied for citizenship under this order with about 9,000 approved.
And this:
Copyright 2004 Guardian Newspapers Limited
The Guardian (London) - Final EditionMay 31, 2004
SECTION: Guardian Foreign Pages, Pg. 11
LENGTH: 674 words
HEADLINE: Crosses in the sand for war’s lost
BYLINE: Dan Glaister
BODY:
Fernando Suarez speaks quietly and calmly, almost dispassionately. “The government said he died from a bullet from an Iraqi,” he tells Mexican tourists on the beach at Santa Monica, southern California. “It was a lie. He died from an American explosive.”Jesus A Suarez, Mr Suarez’s son, was one of the first US servicemen to die in the American-led invasion of Iraq. Behind Mr Suarez stands a field of small wooden crosses planted in the sand. Each cross represents an American from the forces who has died in Iraq since the war began just over a year ago. The most recent one carries the words: “Name not released yet.”
The meeting at the beach occurs weekly and is one of several gatherings started in California in recent months as the toll of America’s dead from Iraq has grown.
This weekend, as the US army death toll in Iraq passes 800, Americans had a public holiday for Memorial Day, marking the second world war. But this year the day has turned into a different kind of remembrance: as a memorial to the 20th century war veterans was unveiled in Washington DC, many Americans turned their thoughts to the current conflict.
Known as “Arlington West”, a nod to the Arlington national cemetery in Washington DC, the field of crosses - an unofficial memorial to America’s war dead - started up on the beach in Santa Barbara, north of Los Angeles, last November. Every Sunday the Los Angeles chapter of Veterans for Peace attend. Ed Ellis keeps count of the dead week by week. “I left Vietnam more than 30 years ago,” he said. “These kids, most of them are in their 20s, went to war but didn’t come back . . . This is a very inviting memorial, it’s not one that stridently pushes an agenda. People can recognise the sacrifices these people have made.”
The public is invited to write the name of one of the dead soldiers on a tag. They then tie the tag, along with a flower, to one of the crosses arranged in rows alongside the pier. At each corner of the grid of crosses an American flag flies at half mast. The Last Post, or Taps as it is known in the US, plays in the background.
The aim is to prompt awareness among Americans of the human cost to the war in Iraq, a cost that all too often goes unreported in the US.
“You feel a tremendous sadness to see all these young men,” said Teresa Lanca, from Palm Springs.
Pierre Vignol, from France, said: “It’s nice to show that we didn’t forget these people. It has to show that war is not a game, that real people died.”
A small boy, sucking on an ice lolly, was not so convinced. “Are there bodies in here?” he asked his father.
“I think it’s beautiful but chilling,” said Teresa Moore, from Los Angeles. “This needs to be exposed even more, it gets censored by the media.”
Her friend, Elaine Boyd, a teacher, said: “There are 100 more since the last time I saw it. One of my students is there. He was 20 when he was killed. He was just a good, ordinary kid. He always wanted to be a marine. It’s kind of hard to deal with because so many of my students are signing up.
“I teach in what might be called a marginalised area and this is a green-card army. They like the uniform, they want to be patriotic, and they do believe they’re fighting terrorism.”
Jesus Suarez left Mexico in 1997 for California hoping to fulfil his wish to become a marine. Like Ms Boyd, Mr Suarez is highly critical of the US army’s recruitment tactics in high schools, saying students are promised substantial financial reward and green card status should they enlist. To many in the deprived urban areas, where immigrant populations are high, the temptation is hard to resist.
“The ones we need to talk to are the ones who are recruiting for the war, who have children in the war,” said Sally Marr, another organiser of the weekly event. “It’s very hard to visualise several hundred dead. But when they see this they see a very different thing. We need to talk to these people and show them that this is the cost of the war.”
And this:
Copyright 2004 Star-Telegram Newspaper, Inc.
Fort Worth Star Telegram (Texas)
January 8, 2004, Thursday FINAL EDITION
SECTION: METRO; Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 740 words
HEADLINE: Grief over soldier’s death crosses border
BYLINE: BUD KENNEDY; Star-Telegram Staff Writer
HIGHLIGHT:
KENNEDY: David Cuervo, who was born in Mexico and was a longtime U.S. resident, was killed in Iraq and is eligible for posthumous citizenship.BODY:
David Cuervo died fighting for America.The young Texas soldier gave his life for our country. Yet he couldn’t even vote.
U.S. Army Pvt. Rey David Cuervo, 24, was killed Dec. 28 in Iraq. He was an immigrant from Tampico, Mexico.
Halfway around the world from home in the Rio Grande Valley cities of Laguna Vista and Port Isabel, he died defending a nation that had embraced his family and — he hoped — would someday embrace him.
“His life in the military was just so busy,” his sister, Valentina Barrientez, said Tuesday by phone. “He just never took the time to get his citizenship.”
Cuervo is one of at least five citizens of Mexico killed fighting for the United States in Iraq, according to news reports. They were among the estimated 30,000 so-called green card American troops, including about 10,000 legal immigrants from Mexico or from Central or South America.
And this:
Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times
All Rights Reserved
Los Angeles TimesMay 26, 2003 Monday
Home EditionSECTION: MAIN NEWS; Part 1; Metro Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 3698 words
HEADLINE: GREEN CARD MARINES;
JUST LOOKING TO FIT INBYLINE: This story was reported and written by Times staff writers Mark, Arax, Daniel Hernandez, Robert J. Lopez and Jennifer Mena.
BODY:
The war in Iraq drew attention to the growing number of noncitizens in the U.S. military — about 37,000. Ten were killed during the war, seven from California. Most were Latino. This is the second of four portraits of Green Card Marines who gave their lives.
