RSteve
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A couple of nights ago, on PBS, there was a documentary on the huge numbers of U.S. military veterans who have been deported in the past few years. Almost all were brought into the U.S. as small children by their immigrating parents. The parents applied for and got citizenship and thought that their children would be granted assumed citizenship, as had been the law for over a hundred years, but the laws for assumed citizenship ended. The documentary focused on two brothers who had been brought to the U.S. in the late 1940s from Mexico. Both served in ground combat units in Vietnam, one brother in the Army, one in the Marines. One is currently V.A. rated 60% disabled; the other 100%. Both, in their 70s, received deportation orders from the INS in the prior year.
In my ignorance, I thought if you served in the U.S. Armed Services, you were automatically granted citizenship.
About 10 years ago, a lady friend who is a naturalized U.S. citizen brought over her 17-year-old daughter from Ukraine on a student visa. The girl had been living with her father, my friend's ex-husband. The girl graduated H.S. in suburban Minneapolis and immediately enlisted in the Army Reserve. Following Basic and A.I.T. the girl's unit was activated and deployed to Afghanistan. While in the service, on active duty, she was granted U.S. citizenship. I can't understand why she was granted citizenship and others were/are not. Maybe because she still had a reserve obligation and speaks Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, and English?
In my ignorance, I thought if you served in the U.S. Armed Services, you were automatically granted citizenship.
About 10 years ago, a lady friend who is a naturalized U.S. citizen brought over her 17-year-old daughter from Ukraine on a student visa. The girl had been living with her father, my friend's ex-husband. The girl graduated H.S. in suburban Minneapolis and immediately enlisted in the Army Reserve. Following Basic and A.I.T. the girl's unit was activated and deployed to Afghanistan. While in the service, on active duty, she was granted U.S. citizenship. I can't understand why she was granted citizenship and others were/are not. Maybe because she still had a reserve obligation and speaks Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, and English?
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