U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Mario Ramos-Villalta has served in Iraq twice. He survived an attack on his Humvee in 2005. He will be deployed soon to Afghanistan. He is not an American. He is a citizen of El Salvador.
A lot of the papers I get [say], 'You're a great American,'" the 22-year-old Purple Heart recipient says. "I am not an American citizen yet, but I still fight for it."
He adds, "Sometimes, I do get depressed about still not being a U.S. citizen and going over there
He is one of an estimated 20,500 "
green card warriors" fighting for the American way.
The first 'American' to die in the land of combat in the war of Iraq was Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, a resident of Guatemala. He too was a green card warrior.
The U.S. has tried to make it easier for those who serve in the military to become citizens. President Bush signed a law into measure after the September 11, 2001 attacks allowing active-duty non citizens who had served honorably in war on or after 9/11/01 to file for immediate citizenship. Almost 37,000 have been able granted citizenship since the war begin in October 2001. 109 were dead when that happened.
Still there are another 7,300 requests pending. Each application takes 7 to 10 months to process.
"These service members have made extraordinary sacrifices for our nation and we're going to do everything possible to ensure that qualified immigrants who serve in our military and who wish to receive U.S. citizenship receive that at the absolute earliest opportunity," Chris Rhatigan, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says.
She adds, "We have had immigrant members of the military going back to the Revolutionary War."
For someone like Ramos-Villalta the process is time consuming and he is not able to deal with the paperwork and lawyers while he is in the field.
"It's frustrating and sometimes I get real sad about it," he says. "There is nothing I can do about it. I mean it's not up to the military. It's up to Immigration Services."
Rhatigan says that her agency is doing its best to make sure military members know where to get help. There is a hotline (1-877-247-4645) and
website to better inform these brave green card warriors.
