Many Troops Marching Toward Citizenship

[unhappycamper]

Many Troops Marching Toward Citizenship
Miami Herald | November 12, 2007


MIAMI - When Staff Sgt. Luis Garcia joined the U.S. Army, he was deployed first to Afghanistan and then to Iraq - all before he became a citizen of the country he swore to defend and serve.

It wasn't for lack of trying. The Honduras-born Soldier, who came to Miami with his family when he was 6, had filed his papers just before he joined the military in 2000. But deployments made it difficult for him to meet with immigration officials to pursue his citizenship case.

Stateside once again in 2005, Garcia took his case to a military liaison on citizenship issues. Garcia, like thousands of others, benefited from President Bush's 2002 order that sped up citizenship proceedings for noncitizens serving in the U.S. military.

"He looked at my paperwork and said, `You know what? This could be done in two weeks.' And sure enough, two weeks later he called me and said, `Come in next month for your swearing,'" Garcia said. "So there it was."

That April, Garcia joined more than 35,125 members of the military who have become naturalized U.S. citizens since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Among them, South Florida residents like Army Spc. Olivier Pratt of Broward County - a Haitian native naturalized this year at a ceremony at Baghdad's opulent Al Faw Palace.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,155959,00.html

[fasttense]

1. I wonder if the bushes 2002 order that sped up citizenship proceedings for non-citizens

includes Mercenaries too? You know all those Pinochet Generals and Torturers Balckwater hired have to go somewhere when the war is over.

[kilesimon]

2. shity

bastards

[NYVet]

3. Elaborate please

Who are you calling shifty bastards?