They are among at least a dozen men who died during the Iraqi conflict fighting for a country where they had had not been born–and, in most cases, were not yet citizens. More than 37,000 legal immigrants are on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, or about 2.5 percent of the 1.4-million active-duty service members. About a third of the so-called green card soldiers come from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries. The rest come from countries ranging from Canada to Korea, according to Defense Department spokeswoman Lt. Col. Cynthia Colin.
The military offers lots of opportunities to legal immigrants. Some who join see the Armed Forces as a way to help finance their education, increase their job opportunities or travel to other parts of the world. Others see it as a chance to serve their adoptive country.
Without citizenship, though, immigrants can’t gain security clearance, which makes them ineligible for some leadership positions in the military and more likely to serve on the frontlines in a conflict. About one in every 10 U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraqi war was not American-born.
Many were on the way to gaining citizenship though. President George W. Bush signed an executive order last summer, making green-card holders who had been on active duty after the September 11 attacks immediately eligible for citizenship. A special team was set up to process the applications from the military–which have more than doubled in the past year–and the previous three-year waiting period was waived. Almost 6,300 applications from the military have been filed since the order took effect last July, and they can be processed in as little as a month, says Dan Kane, spokesman for the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
But that wasn’t soon enough for some. Pfc. Francisco Martinez Flores, 21, was killed in Iraq on March 25, just two weeks before he was to become a U.S. citizen. “He loved this country so much. All he had left to do to become a citizen was the actual induction ceremony,” said his younger sister, Nayeli Martinez, 20. Flores was granted citizenship posthumously.
“It’s more honorary than anything else. There’s no extra monetary aid or benefits. But it does mean a lot for the family,” says Capt. Don Caetano of the Marine Corp Air Station, in Beaufort, S.C., where Marine Cpl. Armando Gonzalez–the base’s only war casualty–was stationed.
Gonzalez, who came to Miami from Cuba by boat with his father and brother in 1995 when he was 17, joined the Marines two years ago. He died on April 14 in southern Iraq when a refueling vehicle collapsed on top of him, leaving behind a wife who is four months pregnant. “He risked his life to get here. And then he died defending his country and freedom. That’s a brave person… he’s an example of the best we have to offer,” says Caetano, adding that the military is working to get Gonzalez awarded posthumous citizenship as quickly as possible.
He might get some help from Congress. A number of bills have recently been introduced that would grant everything from immediate U.S. citizenship to non-citizen soldiers who die in combat (identical bills were introduced in the Senate and one in the House by four legislators from Georgia) to an extension of citizenship to their surviving spouse and children (California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa’s “Fallen Heroes Citizenship Act”). A bill by Walter Jones, R-N.C., would also eliminate the two-year marriage requirement for citizenship for foreign spouses of U.S. citizens who die while serving.
Rep. Martin Frost, D-Texas, introduced a sweeping “Citizenship For America’s Troops Act,” which waives naturalization fees for immigrant troops, lets immigration officials conduct interviews at consulates, embassies and overseas military installations, and decreases the service requirement for citizenship from three to two years. “Typically [immigrants] are the lowest in pay and in rank, but the naturalization process can cost them thousands of dollars in fees and out-of-pocket expenses travel expenses,” says Frost. “Immigration law erects unnecessary and unfair hurdles for these green card troops who want to become citizens in the nation they defend… If you’re willing to die for your country, you should be able to vote there.”
The Judiciary Committee is expected to review the bills this week. Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), the committee’s ranking Democrat, said he hopes to have Frost’s bill signed into law before Memorial Day.
At least six immigrant soldiers who were killed in Iraq have received posthumous citizenship so far, and the families of a few more who died are in the process of getting it for their lost loved one. Jose Gutierrez, one of the first to get citizenship after his death, inspired some of the new proposed legislation. Both his parents had died during the violent civil war in Guatemala before he’d turned nine. He lived on the streets until he found a shelter in Guatemala City, where he met a minister from America and became determined to get there. He hitchhiked, walked and jumped at least a dozen freight trains to get to San Diego from Guatemala as a teenager.
Gutierrez spent his first few months on the streets but a social worker found him, and he entered a series of foster homes, finally landing in Lomita, Calif., a working-class suburb of Los Angeles. Though he’d once lived on the streets, he dreamed of designing buildings. But he opted to push off college and join the Marines so he could help pay for school and continue to send money to the sister, Engracia, he left behind in Guatemala.
He was a Marine for less than a year. On March 21, in his mid-20s (estimates of his age vary), the Marine Lance Cpl. became the first U.S. serviceman to be killed in combat in Iraq–shot in the chest during a gun battle in Umm Kasr. On April 2, less than two weeks later, he was made a U.S. citizen.
Jose Garibay, who died in another firefight in Iraq, was awarded citizenship the next day. Brought to America as an infant from Mexico, Garibay decided at a young age that he wanted to dedicate his life to serving his new country–first, in the military, and then as a police officer. He joined the U.S. Marines straight out of high school and was sent to the Middle East in January. The same day three uniformed Marines knocked on the front door of the family’s ranch house, adorned with Mexican and American flags, to explain the 21-year-old’s death, a former teacher of his received a letter from him in which Garibay wrote: “I want to defend the country I plan to become a citizen of.” Citizenship would have been a prerequisite for him to re-enlist as a Marine. But, as his sister, Crystal Garibay, said earlier this month, “It doesn’t matter now.”
For those who died, it is often the family–aided in many cases by their political representatives and military liaisons–who must fill out the application. But they have not always chosen to do so.
Marine Lance Cpl. Patrick O’Day, 21, who was from Scotland but lived in Sonoma, Calif., died March 25 when his tank plunged into the Euphrates River. “When I first heard he was dead, it just made me so angry that he was over there fighting. And he wasn’t even a citizen,” wife Shauna O’Day told USA Today. “But then I realized that it just shows what a great place this is to live.” O’Day’s husband came to America with his parents as a youngster. He could have applied for citizenship but didn’t, and his wife doesn’t plan to change that.
While most families say they appreciate the honor bestowed on their loved one, there is also some bitterness that the citizenship comes at such a high price.
Marine Staff Sgt. Riayan Tejeda, a native of the Dominican Republic who grew up in New York City, joined the Marines immediately after graduating from high school. When Tejeda, 26, was killed on April 11 during a firefight in Baghdad, he had not yet become a citizen. “He loved being in the Marines and fighting for this country,” his father, Julio Tejeda, told New York newspapers. “But it’s too late. A piece of paper won’t bring back my son.”
And Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Alberto Suarez del Solar, 20 will become a posthumous citizen in spite of his father Fernando’s strong feelings against it. His widow, Seane Suarez, wanted to apply for the sake of their 15-month-old son. But his father has said he rejected the idea because it doesn’t mean anything for the family with their son gone.
Pfc. Diego Fernando Rincon, an immigrant from Colombia who was killed in a suicide bomb attack at an Army checkpoint near Najaf on March 29, had wanted citizenship, according to his mother Yolanda. But she added: “He didn’t join [the Army] because he wanted to be a citizen.”
Though 19-year-old Rincon was granted citizenship posthumously, his mother added, “The only citizenship I care about now is from heaven, so I can see him again.”
