Non-citizens fight and die for adopted country
By Valerie Alvord, special for USA TODAY
Patrick O'Day was born in Scotland. Francisco Martinez Flores was born in Mexico. Neither were U.S. citizens, but they died together in Iraq as U.S. Marines.
At least seven U.S. servicemen killed in the Iraq war weren't citizens, the Defense Department says. They're among approximately 31,000 "green-card" soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen in the U.S. military. They're permanent legal residents but not U.S. citizens. Yet they chose to defend the country where they live.
The large number of non-citizens serving in the military may surprise many Americans. But non-citizen legal residents have long been able to serve in the military. They make up about 2% of the 1.4 million active-duty servicemembers. About a third come from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries. The rest are from China, Vietnam, Canada, Korea, India and other countries.
Some of the families of these servicemen killed in the war in Iraq want them buried as citizens, which they can become if their families apply for it.
"My son is dead, and I'm broken inside," says Jorge Rincon of Conyers, Ga. His son, Army Pfc. Diego Rincon, came to the USA from Colombia as a youngster. He was killed March 29 in a suicide bombing attack. His funeral is Thursday.
"The only thing that keeps me going now is to make sure that he's buried as an American," says Rincon. "That will be my dream come true."
Other families feel the same and are taking advantage of a presidential order last year that allows relatives of slain troops to apply for posthumous citizenship. The gesture carries no additional financial benefits for surviving relatives.
The family of Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez Del Solar, 20, who was born in Mexico and moved with his family to Escondido, Calif., seven years ago, is expected to apply for posthumous citizenship.
On Sunday, the Marine Corps presented Martinez Flores' family with his citizenship papers at their home in Duarte, Calif.
"If my brother hadn't gone over there, he would have been a citizen by now," says Nayeli Martinez, 19. "He and my mom and I all applied at the same time. Ours got processed faster than his. He had taken his citizenship test, and the only thing left was to take the oath in a formal ceremony. Before he could do that, he shipped out."
Her brother, who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, "came here when he was 3 years old. And he considered himself an American."
But the process for granting citizenship posthumously can take several weeks, and families are concerned that the status will not be granted before their sons and brothers are buried. Georgia Sens. Zell Miller and Saxby Chambliss are introducing legislation that automatically would grant posthumous citizenship.
On Tuesday, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney urged faster action in a letter to the White House. "It seems to me and to many others that the very least we can do to assist our immigrant men and women serving the best interest of this great nation is to grant them citizenship without bureaucratic obstacles and delays," he wrote.
He sent the letter a day after he officiated at a funeral Mass for Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 22, a Guatemalan immigrant and one of the first combat casualties.
Gutierrez was granted posthumous citizenship. So was Marine Cpl. Jose Angel Garibay, 21, of Costa Mesa, Calif.
It's common for legal immigrants to "have pride and patriotism and serve in the military," says Peter Nunez of the Center for Immigration Studies, which lobbies for lower immigration quotas. "They continue the long tradition of immigrants who come to this country being patriotic."
Shauna O'Day, whose husband, Patrick, 21, was from Scotland, says she's proud of her husband. O'Day and Martinez Flores were among four Marines who died March 25 when their 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," O'Day says. "But then I realized that it just shows what a great place this is to live."
O'Day's husband came to the USA with his parents as a youngster. He could have applied for citizenship but didn't. And she doesn't plan to change that.
"He loved this country. And knowing that my husband was willing to die fighting for America, and he wasn't even a citizen, makes me even prouder to be an American," she says.
Patriotism is sustaining Jorge Rincon.
"When my son went to the recruiter to join the Army, I went with him. I wanted to join, too, but they told me I was too old," he says. "We came here for the American dream, and we found it."
Rincon learned Tuesday that his son was granted U.S. citizenship: "I'm proud for Diego and proud to be in this country and proud that my son was in the United States Army."