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Citizenship or Death

Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2008-03-24 14:27.

By smash artist, DailyKos

As anyone who reads this site knows, the path to citizenship for an immigrant in this country is not easy. Even if everything is done to the letter of the law, American citizenship is still extremely hard to get.

Over 20,000 soldiers currently serving in the United States army are not United States citizens. For 109 of those soldiers, their path to citizenship cost them their lives.

Over 100 members of the U.S. military have earned U.S. Citizenship by dying in Iraq.

A young, ambitious immigrant from Guatemala who dreamed of becoming an architect. A Nigerian medic. A soldier from China who boasted he would one day become an American general. An Indian native whose headstone displays the first Khanda, emblem of the Sikh faith, to appear in Arlington National Cemetery.

These were among more than 100 foreign-born members of the U.S. military who earned American citizenship by dying in Iraq.

This should never be allowed to happen in the United States of America. No person who is willing to put their life on the line for this country should ever have to wait until they come home in a body bag to be considered a citizen of this country.
Cardinal Roger Mahony describes this perfectly:

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, who oversaw Gutierrez's service, put it differently.
'There is something terribly wrong with our immigration policies if it takes death on the battlefield in order to earn citizenship,' Mahony wrote to President Bush in April 2003. He urged the president to grant immediate citizenship to all immigrants who sign up for military service in wartime.

'They should not have to wait until they are brought home in a casket,' Mahony said.

But as the war continues, more and more immigrants are becoming citizens in death — and more and more families are grappling with deeply conflicting feelings about exactly what the honor means.

These are some of the brave men who gave their lives for a country that refused to grant them basic rights as citizens during their life:

• Marine Cpl. Armando Ariel Gonzalez, 25, who fled Cuba on a raft with his father and brother in 1995 and dreamed of becoming an American firefighter. He was crushed by a refueling tank in southern Iraq on April 14, 2003.
• Army Spc. Justin Onwordi, a 28-year-old Nigerian medic whose heart seemed as big as his smiling 6-foot-4 frame and who left behind a wife and baby boy. He died when his vehicle was blown up in Baghdad on Aug. 2, 2004.
• Army Pfc. Ming Sun, 20, of China who loved the U.S. military so much he planned to make a career out of it, boasting that he would rise to the rank of general. He was killed in a firefight in Ramadi on Jan. 9, 2007.
• Army Spc. Uday Singh, 21, of India, killed when his patrol was attacked in Habbaniyah on Dec. 1, 2003. Singh was the first Sikh to die in battle as a U.S. soldier, and it is his headstone at Arlington that displays the Khanda.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Patrick O'Day from Scotland, buried in the California rain as bagpipes played and his 19-year-old pregnant wife told mourners how honored her 20-year-old husband had felt to fight for the country he loved.

I wish I had more original insight to provide on this issue, but I feel that the story speaks for itself. I cannot adequately put into words the sadness and anger I feel that in a country like ours, men and women have to wait until death to be counted as citizens.

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