Immigrant Service Members Become U.S. Citizens

Twenty-two service members from 15 different nations, including three who served in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, raised their right hands and recited the oath of citizenship during an April 14 ceremony in the Pentagon courtyard. "It speaks volumes about America when people are willing to pick up arms and defend her, yet they can’t even vote here," said Emilio T. Gonzalez, head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, who administered the oath. "The fact that tens of thousands of legal, permanent non-citizens serve in our armed forces is something that’s quite unfathomable to countries around the world." According to the Pentagon, some 37,000 non-citizens now serve in the armed forces.