Now Citizens of Country They Serve

Eighteen Navy sailors based in the San Diego area were sworn in Friday as U.S. citizens, the largest naturalization of its kind since the war in Iraq began.

As the uniformed men and women from the Philippines, Nigeria, Mexico, Belize and six other countries recited their oaths, federal magistrate Anthony Battaglia noted that some are headed overseas, possibly to the Middle East.

“Our freedoms were gained by the sacrifice of many citizens,” Battaglia said. “You are truly the types of patriots we all aspire to be.”

The proceeding came amid a growing discussion nationwide of the contributions made by so-called green card soldiers.

Officials reported Friday that six California immigrants killed in the Iraq conflict have now been granted posthumous citizenship. Several federal lawmakers have introduced legislation that would expedite the naturalization process for foreign-born soldiers.

In all, more than 37,000 members of the armed forces are noncitizens, a figure that has grown by nearly a third in the last three years. Nearly one in three green card volunteers come from California.

Like those granted citizenship Friday, the largest number of foreign nationals volunteer for the Navy, in part, officials say, because it is the one service that does not limit how long noncitizens can serve. The Army allows noncitizens to serve only a maximum of nine years.

Citing the war on terrorism, President Bush signed an executive order last July that eliminated a three-year waiting period and made service personnel immediately eligible for citizenship.

Several participants in Friday’s ceremony said they had taken advantage of that program. Immigration officials said the proceeding was planned around the same time as the start of the war in Iraq.

“It feels really good,” said Luis Arias, 19, who emigrated from Cuba in 1996 to be with family members in Florida and joined the Navy two years ago. He and his family always dreamed of being together in America, to escape the Castro regime.

“It’s hard [in Cuba]. You can’t really speak your mind,” said Arias, who is assigned to an assault ship that may be headed for the Middle East.

Obtaining citizenship took him just five months under the fast-track program. “I think people in the service deserve it,” he said.

Advocates for stricter immigration controls applaud the sacrifice of noncitizens fighting in Iraq, but say they are concerned about fast-tracking such soldiers through the citizenship process.

“Why did they join -- to protect and serve this country, or to get their citizenship?” said Harald Martin, a former Anaheim school board member and champion of tighter borders.

One of the soldiers naturalized Friday, Medic Kufreabasi Idiong, said winning citizenship was not the main reason he enlisted.

Originally from Nigeria, 22-year-old Idiong wants to become a doctor and saw the Navy as a way to receive medical training. But then he realized the officers ranks, including those serving as doctors, are closed to noncitizens.

“This helps a lot,” he said.

Although immigrants have a long tradition in the U.S. military, the Iraq war has cast a spotlight on their service.

“The issue was brought home to me when I realized that some of those soldiers who had died in Iraq were not citizens,” U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said Friday.

He introduced a bill Thursday that would grant immediate citizenship to all immigrants on active duty in the armed forces, provided they meet all other legal requirements such as speaking and writing English and passing a test on U.S. government and history. The bill also would allow permanent residents to be sworn in as citizens the same day they enlist.

“The right time to give them citizenship is when they are alive and not after they have died,” Hastings said.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and U.S. Rep. Martin Frost (D-Texas) also have introduced legislation that would waive $300 naturalization fees for immigrant soldiers and allow citizenship interviews and swearing-in ceremonies to be conducted overseas.

And U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) has introduced a bill that would allow the spouse and children of soldiers granted posthumous citizenship to also become naturalized. Currently, the award is honorary and conveys no immigration benefits to surviving family members.

“At the very least,” Issa said in a statement, “we can honor that sacrifice by allowing their spouse and children to enjoy the benefits and the freedom of the country they were fighting to defend.”

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Times staff writer Errin Haines contributed to this report.