Immigration changes hit US servicemembers

New immigration policy withholds automatic citizenship for some children of troops overseas, but not all

Military Times
By: Meghann Myers
August 28, 2019

“This country cannot place them in harm’s way and then punish their children and families by requiring them to undertake a years-long adjudication from an agency that is already over-tasked.” Shaun May of the Federal Practice Groups

The agency in charge of approving U.S. citizenship has updated its definition of residence as it relates to eligibility to become a citizen, according to a policy memo released Wednesday.

A change in immigration policy withholds automatic citizenship for some children of troops overseas. The new policy does not affect children born to U.S. citizens serving abroad. Those children are still entitled to automatic citizenship.. (MC3 A.J. Jones/Navy)

It might affect the foreign-born children of some service members when it takes effect on Oct. 29.

Children born to — or adopted by — some U.S. service members overseas are no longer automatically considered U.S. residents or entitled to U.S. citizenship, according to the policy.

“This policy update does not affect anyone who is born a U.S. citizen, period," Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigrant Services, said in a statement.

“This only affects children who were born outside the United States and were not U.S. citizens.”
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Soldiers Died by Suicide at Arizona-Mexico Border

Official: Soldiers Died by Suicide at Arizona-Mexico Border

The Associated Press
28 Jun 2019

Officials say 20-year-old Pfc. Steven Hodges of Menifee, California, died June 1 near Nogales, and 21-year-old Pfc. Kevin Christian of Haslet, Texas, died Sunday in Ajo, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Nogales.

TUCSON, Ariz. — A medical examiner says two soldiers helping secure the Mexico border in Arizona died by suicide.

Pima County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Greg Hess said Thursday the soldiers died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
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At 35, Army Reservist... finally a soldier

He couldn't enlist after 9/11 because he was undocumented. At 35, he just finished boot camp

CBS News
BY CAMILO MONTOYA-GALVEZ
MAY 10, 2019

Vargas' enlistment in the Army Reserve marked the culmination of a remarkable, nearly two-decades-long journey from undocumented immigrant to trail-blazing attorney and activist. It also served as a stark reminder that the country Vargas has fought so hard to serve in uniform is still leaving many — including his family — in the shadows.

Specialist Cesar Vargas, 35, a former undocumented immigrant, graduated from basic training in late April after unsuccessfully trying to enlist for nearly two decades. CAMILO MONTOYA-GALVEZ

Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. — One by one, the young soldiers stepped forward methodically, announcing their rank, last name and hometown.

By the time it was Cesar Vargas' turn, his brothers and sisters in arms in Charlie Company had mapped out locations across the U.S. and around the world — from Omaha, Nebraska and Brooklyn, to West Africa's Burkina Faso and Lima, Peru.

"Puebla, Mexico!" the 35-year-old Vargas shouted, stepping in front of his comrades, many of whom had recently graduated from high school.

The stark age difference between him and the other boot camp graduates was not lost on Vargas, now a specialist in the Army Reserve. Since he was a teenager, he's been trying to join the armed forces. "After 9/11 — as a New Yorker — I took it very personally," he told CBS News. "And while many of my friends were trying to enlist, I couldn't because of my immigration status."
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French Native To Receive US Medal of Honor

Soldier who fought in Afghanistan will receive Medal of Honor
Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
October 14, 2015

U.S. Army 1st. Lt. Florent A. Groberg, officer in charge for personal security detail, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division enjoys the view from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter traveling over the Kunar province July 16, 2012. U.S. ARMY

WASHINGTON – A French-born soldier will become the tenth living recipient of the Medal of Honor for service in Afghanistan, the White House announced Wednesday.

Capt. Florent Groberg, 32, will be awarded the nation’s highest military honor by President Barack Obama during a ceremony planned for Nov. 12.

He was engaged in combat in Kunar Province – a deadly double-suicide attack that killed four – and injured while serving as commander of a personal security detachment for a task force in the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, according to media reports and the White House.
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Florida Disabled Vietnam Veteran Becomes US Citizen

Vietnam veteran finally becomes citizen
My News 13
Bailey Myers
Osceola County Reporter
July 4, 2014

OSCEOLA COUNTY
Friday marked another Independence Day for the U.S., But for dozens of people throughout the Central Florida area, it also marked the day they became U.S. citizens.

News 13 attended Naturalization Ceremonies and heard the stories of those who have tried for years to call themselves Americans.

With their right hands raised for this solemn oath twenty six people from all across the world became American Citizens this independence day in Central Florida.

It took tests, interviews and years to get to this point. But for Antonio Adao, it took 56 years.

See in 1958, Adao immigrated here from Portugal when he was just 15 years old. A few years later though, Adao stood and fought proudly for his new country.

“In 1964 I was drafted into service and in 1965 I went to Vietnam,” said new U.S. citizen Antonio Adao. He fought for one year in Vietnam before he was injured.
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Go here for video report Vietnam Veteran Becomes US Citizen

Army vet in immigration limbo

Army vet in immigration limbo after finding out he's not US citizen
The Associated Press
By Laura Wides-Munoz
Published: May 15, 2014

MIAMI — Immigration authorities said Thursday that they are reviewing the case of an Army veteran and Cuban native who recently discovered he is not a U.S. citizen.

Mario Hernandez served in the Army during the Vietnam War and worked for the Department of Justice's Bureau of Prisons using a Social Security number he received when he arrived in the country as a child.

The 58-year-old Tallahassee, Florida, man always thought he was a U.S. citizen and repeatedly voted.

It was only last fall when he sought a passport to take a cruise with his wife that he discovered the authorities did not list him as a citizen or a permanent resident.

Suddenly, he was in limbo and under investigation by the U.S. government.

"I served this country," Hernandez said. "I've always tried to prove I'm a good American citizen. I have always taught my children and grandchildren we need to be good stewards of this country. My parents came for freedom. We owe a lot to this country."

Hernandez's attorney, Elizabeth Ricci, said they planned to meet with officials Tuesday in Tallahassee.
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US Soldiers in Afghanistan become citizens on Veterans Day

Deployed soldiers become citizens on Veterans Day
DVIDS
ISAF Regional Command South
Story by Sgt. Antony Lee
November 12, 2013

Newly naturalized U.S. Army soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan hold their certificates of naturalization as they pose with Robert Daum, deputy district director for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Bangkok, Pius D. Bannis, the Bangkok District director for USCIS, Maj. Gen. Paul J. LaCamera, Regional Command (South) and 4th Infantry Division commanding general, Dr. S. Ken Yamashita, the director of program coordination for the U.S. embassy in Kabul, and Command Sgt. Maj. Brian M. Stall, RC(S) and 4th Inf. Div. command sergeant major, after a ceremony at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, on Veterans Day, in which they officially became U.S. citizens.
(U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Antony S. Lee)

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Seven deployed members of the U.S. Army officially became citizens of the nation they have sworn to support and defend during a naturalization ceremony at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, on Veterans Day.

Staff Sergeant Dison Luzama, from Micronesia; Sgt. Franko Solano-Sambrano, from Venezuela; Sgt. Rajiv Hewitt, from Jamaica; Cpl. Sourivon Sathahone-Ramos, from Cuba; Spc. Franklin Pascua, from the Philippines; Pfc. Murphy Balsomi, from Congo and Pfc. Kemar Wedderburn, from Jamaica, declared their oath of allegiance and were sworn in as U.S. citizens during the ceremony.

“It’s indescribable, in a good way,” said Balsomi, an Infantryman with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, who lives in Dallas.
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Spike in deportations traps thousands of veterans

A permanent resident, veteran faces deportation
Inquirer
Michael Matza, Staff Writer
Posted: Monday, October 21, 2013

Neuris Richard Feliz, 29, a former power-generation specialist for the U.S. Army, lives in a small apartment above a Lancaster storefront.

In the dining room sits his photo in green uniform, against the backdrop of an American flag. On a shelf, a horse-head profile on the yellow shield of his First Cavalry Division.

Buried in a closet are the pictures Feliz hides - corpses shredded by Iraqi roadside bombs; forward-operating-base ceremonies for fallen comrades whose lives were memorialized with Battlefield Crosses made from their helmets, boots, and rifles.

Now, almost a decade after a dangerous year under mortar fire, after receiving medals for "good conduct," "national defense service," and the "global war on terrorism," Feliz is to be deported for beating a man with an ax handle and serving three years in prison.

Their situation is part of a dramatic spike in deportations under President Obama - a record 1.5 million people in his first term. Estimates put the number of "banished vets" - barred permanently from the United States - at several hundred to around 3,000.

Their plight is hardly noticed in the brittle brawl over immigration reform, as politicians who defend our troops are less inclined to go to bat for them after convictions.
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Atheist Seeking U.S. Citizenship, Told To Join Church Or Be Denied?

Margaret Doughty, Atheist Seeking U.S. Citizenship, Told To Join Church Or Be Denied
The Huffington Post
By Nick Wing
Posted: 06/19/2013

Margaret Doughty, an atheist and permanent U.S. resident for more than 30 years, was told by immigration authorities this month that she has until Friday to officially join a church that forbids violence or her application for naturalized citizenship will be rejected.

Doughty received the ultimatum after stating on her application that she objected to the pledge to bear arms in defense of the nation due to her moral opposition to war. According to a letter to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services by the American Humanist Association on Doughty's behalf, officials responded by telling her that she needed to prove that her status as a conscientious objector was due to religious beliefs. They reportedly told her she'd need to document that she was "a member in good standing" of a nonviolent religious organization or be denied citizenship at her June 21 hearing. A note “on official church stationary [sic]" would suffice, they said.
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Vietnam Veteran Says Obama Ignoring Plight of Deported Heroes

Vet Says Obama Ignoring Plight of Deported Heroes
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
Jun 12, 2013

No one knows how many veterans have been deported because ICE does not track that information.

A Vietnam combat veteran who lives under threat of deportation criticized President Barack Obama on Tuesday for ignoring the plight of "banished" veterans while pushing for immigration reform for undocumented aliens in the U.S.

"I just think he will continue to ignore us," said Manuel Valenzuela, a Marine veteran. "We got a president that has no backbone. That's really unfortunate – a commander-in-chief with no backbone."

Obama, flanked by labor, business, and civic leaders, gathered in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday to promote the Dream Act, an immigration bill now before the Senate that would give a path to citizenship to people who were brought into the United States as children.
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Camp Pendleton Fallen Marine Became Citizen Posthumously

Immigrant Marine in life, U.S. citizen in death
Marine Cpl. Roberto Cazarez is the 144th immigrant military service member to get citizenship posthumously since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times
December 7, 2012

CAMP PENDLETON — Marine Cpl. Roberto Cazarez applied for U.S. citizenship shortly before he deployed for combat duty in Afghanistan.

The expedited process allows enlistees who are permanent legal residents, like Cazarez was, to go to the head of the line for citizenship.

Cazarez's application was pending at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services when he was killed by a roadside bomb blast in March, just weeks before his battalion was due to return to Camp Pendleton.

On Thursday, in a short but emotional ceremony, Cazarez's widow was presented with a certificate indicating that her husband had been posthumously awarded his U.S. citizenship, retroactive to the day that he was killed.

Cazarez, who was 24 when he died, is the 144th military service member to be posthumously awarded citizenship since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — more than in any other period of U.S. combat, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
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Fallen soldier in Iraq didn't tell family he was there

One thing about tracking all of this across the country is that some reports stun me. This is one of them. A US soldier, born in South Korea, wanted to join the military and serve this country. He didn't want his family to worry about him, so he didn't tell them he had been deployed. If that isn't strange enough, this part really got me.

"I didn't trust this document, so they called someone in the military. They were told when a soldier is born outside of the United States, they change his birthplace to a U.S. state. His had been changed to Kansas.

Slain Soldier Didn't Tell Parents He Was at War
Knight Ridder
by Imani Tate
Jun 02, 2012

Besides helping freedom-loving citizens of his adopted homeland and countries fighting tyranny, Jang Ho Kim of Placentia was fighting to protect his parents and sister.

Jang Ho, the son of La Verne's Nikuni Japanese Grill owner Steve Kim, thoroughly believed people everywhere should be free of worry and fear, so he enlisted in the Army in June 2005.

Not wanting his dad, mother Sang Soon Kim or little sister Michelle to fret about his safety, he fudged in conversations about his exact whereabouts after finishing basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., and combat training in Germany.

So, when two soldiers came to tell them Jang Ho had been killed in Baghdad, Steve Kim knew it had to be a mistake.

"I had just come back from lunch when I got a phone call from my wife," said Kim, then Samsung's information technology director in La Mirada. "She said two soldiers were at the house and asked me to come home."
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Iraq War vet can’t get Social Security card

Iraq War vet can’t get Social Security card
February 24, 2012, by Deven Swartz and Mitch Carr
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Kevin Christoffersen served in Iraq for the U.S. military, but he said he can’t prove he’s an American citizen due to government bureaucracy.

Christofferson calls himself Russian by birth and American by choice. His parents adopted him from Russia when he was five, and he became a U.S. citizen in 1994.

About a year ago, he went to apply for a Social Security card and a driver’s license, but he couldn’t get either.

He has a copy of the certificate of citizenship, but that’s actually where the problem lies.
“We cannot accept photocopies or notarized copies of documents,” said Patti Patterson with the Social Security Administration.
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Good enough to serve and risk their lives, not good enough citizens

UPDATE from Stars and Stripes

US veterans deported after they served
By CINDY CARCAMO
The Orange County Register
Published: February 21, 2012

ROSARITO, Mexico — Keeping tabs on his U.S. citizenship application wasn’t much of a priority for Marine Cpl. Rohan Coombs when he served in the Persian Gulf War.

The aircraft maintenance specialist had more pressing concerns: The safety of his comrades as bombs rained down and people died around him in the desert.

Coombs, who came to the U.S. legally from Jamaica as a child and enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 20, served six years in the military. Eventually, he settled in Tustin, Calif., and figured he was a U.S. citizen because he’d fought for his country.

He was wrong. Like hundreds of other men and women who served in the U.S. military, Coombs faces deportation and banishment from the country he went to war for after being arrested. In his case, he was arrested several times for possession for use or sale of marijuana.

Just south of the U.S.-Mexico border in Rosarito, a contingent of about a dozen veterans who call themselves the “Banished Veterans” are lobbying to change an immigration act that allows legal residents who commit certain crimes to be deported, despite his or her military service. The group has launched a website, Facebook page and created a network of advocates and attorneys who provide legal and emotional support to U.S. veterans who face deportation.
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Rally Held To Support Veterans Facing Deportation

Brothers Valente, Manuel Valenzuela Both Served During Vietnam War
February 18, 2012
SAN DIEGO -- A rally to call for an end to deportation proceedings against veterans who have broken U.S. laws was held on Saturday at the pedestrian border crossing at San Ysidro.

Earlier this week, two brothers drove to San Diego from Colorado to tell their story. Both Valente and Manuel Valenzuela served during the Vietnam War. Manuel Valenzuela served with the Marines and was deployed three times.
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U.S. veterans deported after they served

U.S. veterans deported after they served

By CINDY CARCAMO / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

ROSARITO, BAJA CALIFORNIA – Keeping tabs on his U.S. citizenship application wasn't much of a priority for Marine Cpl. Rohan Coombs when he served in the Persian Gulf War.

The aircraft maintenance specialist had more pressing concerns: the safety of his comrades as bombs rained down and people died around him in the desert.

Coombs, who came to the U.S. legally from Jamaica as a child and enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 20, served six years in the military. Eventually, he settled in Tustin and figured he was a U.S. citizen because he'd gone to war for his country.

He was wrong. Like hundreds of other men and women who served in the U.S. military, Coombs faces deportation and banishment from the country he went to war for after being arrested. In his case, he was arrested several times on charges of possession for use or sale of marijuana.

Just south of the U.S.-Mexico border in Rosarito, a contingent of about a dozen veterans who call themselves the "Banished Veterans" are lobbying to change an immigration act that allows legal residents who commit certain crimes to be deported, despite his or her military service.

The group has launched a website, Facebook page and created a network of advocates and attorneys who provide legal and emotional support to U.S. veterans who face deportation.
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Vietnam veterans fighting deportation?

Local Vietnam veterans still fighting deportation

by Matt Stafford
Updated: Jun 11, 2011

Manuel says more than 3,000 veterans have been deported since 1996. The Valenzuelas are trying to help all of them.

Although they've been to court four times, Manuel and Valente Valenzuela -- both Vietnam veterans -- are still fighting deportation issues. NF5 first spoke with the two veterans a year ago, and now Manuel says not much has changed.

"They still have a deportation issue on us," says Manuel.

The Valenzuelas are still arguing against the deportation with the same point.

"Due to my mother being a born-American mother, we're American citizens," explains Manuel. He says that it was a misdemeanor charge from 25 years ago that the government was using to deport him; he says it was a similar issue for his brother, Valente.

Immigration Services couldn't talk to us about the Valenzuela's case, but they say you can lose legal status for committing a crime.

"If you are here on some sort of a temporary status, and you commit certain crimes, you lose that status," says Tim Count, with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

So Manuel and his brother continue to fight, but as they do they're finding disturbing news; lots of other veterans have been in the same situation.

"I have files and files of paperwork here," says Manuel. "It is, it's a shame."


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Vietnam veterans still fighting deportation

Two Marines, two immigrants, two heroes receive Navy Cross

Marines showed extraordinary bravery 'when the world became fire'
By Larry Shaughnessy, CNN Pentagon Producer
June 11, 2011 8:55 a.m. EDT

Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, left, and Capt. Ademola Fabayo, awarded the Navy Cross, are now trainers

Quantico, Virginia (CNN) -- Capt. Ademola Fabayo and Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez are both immigrants to the United States, both Marines and, most important of all, both heroes of a rare order.

On Friday, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus presented both men with the Navy Cross during a ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. The Navy Cross is the second-highest award for valor in the military, surpassed only by the Medal of Honor.
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Marines showed extraordinary bravery

Immigration officials tried to deport citizen, Army veteran

He wasn't born here but was willing to serve this country and die for it. He played by the rules and became a citizen in 1998 while he was serving. Even with all of this, Rennison Castillo he was taken to jail, then to a detention center in 2005. Do you think $400,000 is enough for what happened to him?

Feds agree to pay wrongly detained vet $400K
Immigration officials tried to deport citizen, Army veteran
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Feb 24, 2011 18:21:14 EST
SEATTLE — The U.S. government has agreed to pay $400,000 to an American citizen and Army veteran from Washington state who was locked up for seven months while immigration officials wrongly tried to deport him.

Rennison Castillo was transferred to the Northwest Detention Center in 2005 when he finished serving a jail sentence for violating a protection order and harassment. The native of Belize explained repeatedly that he had become a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1998 while serving in the Army, but neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials nor an immigration judge believed him. He was finally released after the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and Seattle attorneys took up his case on appeal.

“ICE officers did not listen to me when I told them repeatedly that I was a U.S. citizen and had served in the Army at Fort Lewis,” he said in a statement released Thursday. “They were disrespectful and told me that I would say anything to get out of detention.”

The government gave him a letter of apology written by the assistant U.S. attorney in Tacoma who handled the case.

“I believe that none of my clients ... would ever have wanted to, or knowingly would have, detained a veteran and a United States citizen,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Lynch wrote. “We very much regret that you were detained.”
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Feds agree to pay wrongly detained vet $400K

Marine Sgt. Michael H. Ferschke Jr. Memorial Act, lives on hold because of Senator Sessions objections

Mother's plea raises hope son's widow can enter US
By Michael Collins
Posted November 24, 2010 at midnight

Called "the Marine Sgt. Michael H. Ferschke Jr. Memorial Act," the bill cleared the U.S. House last week with support from Democrats and Republicans. Supporters were hoping to push the measure quickly through the U.S. Senate as well, but Sessions' objections have slowed it down and could possibly dim its prospects of passing before Congress adjourns at the end of December.

WASHINGTON - A Maryville woman who is trying to bring her widowed Japanese daughter-in-law and infant grandson to East Tennessee urged a U.S. Senator from Alabama on Tuesday to stop holding up a bill that would allow her family to be reunited.

Robin Ferschke met with Sen. Jeff Sessions for about an hour in his office in Mobile, Ala., and made a personal plea for him to let the legislation go forward.

"He said he does believe it should happen, that we need to make this right," Ferschke said.

Sessions is the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the bill is pending. A number of Senate offices have raised concerns the bill language is too broad and would needlessly remove a whole class of immigration safeguards that do not apply to the Ferschkes' situation, said Sessions' spokesman, Stephen Miller.
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Mother's plea raises hope son's widow can enter US

State's new immigration law worries Arizona soldier

I'm here because this is something that's close to my heart," said Army PFC Jose Medina. "I went off to protect this country, to protect my family. That's what hurts."

State's new immigration law worries Arizona soldier
By Paul Vercammen and Thelma Gutierrez, CNN
April 26, 2010 4:01 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Pfc. Jose Medina expressed his concern over Arizona's new immigration law
Medina's friends and family talked about new law during his farewell feast
Medina wondered if some of his undocumented friends, family would leave the area

Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) -- At a vigil protesting the passage of Arizona's tough new illegal immigration law, a young man in Army fatigues and a beret lit a candle at a makeshift shrine.

Pfc. Jose Medina, an Army medic, came to the Arizona capitol while on leave, to express his sadness over the law, signed by Arizona's governor on Friday.

"I'm here because this is something that's close to my heart," said Medina. "I went off to protect this country, to protect my family. That's what hurts."

The new law, signed by the Arizona governor on Friday, requires police to determine whether a person is in the United States legally. It also requires immigrants to carry their registration documents at all times and requires police to question people if there is reason to suspect that they're in the country illegally. Some fear the law will result in racial profiling.
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State new immigration law worries Arizona soldier