Local News in Brief : Appeal Court Denies Bid for Citizenship

An appeals court has reversed a Los Angeles federal judge’s ruling that a 73-year-old Filipino who fought for the Americans during World War II may become a naturalized U.S. citizen even though he did not formally apply until after his discharge.

Dr. Bernardo Ortega, who served in the Philippine Commonwealth Army on behalf of U.S. forces from 1942 until 1944, applied in 1981 to the Immigration and Naturalization Service under the War Powers Act, which granted the right to alien members of the U.S. armed forces during that conflict.

Chief U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real had ruled in favor of Ortega on grounds that the latter attempted to apply at the U.S. Embassy in Manila six months before the law’s expiration at the end of 1946. He was turned away and told to wait for further instructions. They never came.

On Monday, however, a three-judge U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel concluded that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in a similar case means Ortega should have applied while still in the service.