An Oft-Told Tale of Citizenship

Retired Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sgt. Guadalupe “Lupe” Denogean, 45, has an inspiring citizenship story. Perhaps that’s why President Bush keeps telling it.

On half a dozen occasions -- from the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in 2003 to his address Monday night -- Bush has told audiences about the Mexican immigrant he is proud to call “a fellow American.”

What is it about Denogean that so fascinates the president?

Reached at his home in Twentynine Palms on Monday evening, Denogean says he thinks it has to do with the way they met.

It was early April 2003, and he had just arrived at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. A grenade attack near Basra, Iraq, on March 24 had left him with a head injury, burst eardrums and a body studded with shrapnel. Upon his arrival at the hospital, Denogean filled out a questionnaire asking if he had any special requests.

Yes, he wrote: He wished to become a U.S. citizen.

Denogean (pronounced Day-no-yahn) came from Mexico as a child with his parents, who worked in the fields as migrant laborers, and joined the Marine Corps after dropping out of high school. He said he had applied for citizenship several times during his 26 years in the military, but had to forfeit his application each time he moved, including stints in Japan and Kuwait.

A week after Denogean turned in his questionnaire, Bush and his wife, Laura, came to the hospital -- and the Marine’s wish was fulfilled. The president stood beside Denogean’s wife, Jeri, as the wounded serviceman took the citizenship oath. The couples spoke briefly afterward, Denogean said, and the president gave him a hug.

“At the time, they didn’t know how many registered aliens are in the country serving in the military,” Denogean said.

Since then, he has noticed the president mentioning his name, he said. Friends call when they hear it, or his wife spots it on the Internet. A few days ago, he said, a woman in Bush’s press office called to notify him of the latest mention and to fact-check what the president was going to say.

The couple enjoyed hearing it live at home. “We were floored,” Jeri Denogean said.

After the speech, Lupe Denogean said he believed his fellow American was on the right track. Denogean said he did not favor amnesty for undocumented immigrants, and he does not think the president does, either.

“He’s doing the right thing” by creating a guest worker program, Denogean said. “What he was saying made sense.”

Denogean’s father was among the first guest workers, Mexican men called braceros brought into Arizona from Mexico in the 1940s.

Both of his parents later became citizens, as did his wife’s mother, a Japanese immigrant. Five of his siblings did too. (A sixth was born in California.)

“This is the land of opportunity. You can make it what you want,” said Denogean, who still has relatives in Mexico. “But to do it right, you have to be legal.”