Hate the war,
love the warrior



A FATHER begged to know: Did his 19-year old son really have to die to stop Saddam Hussein from unleashing his weapons of mass destruction against America or was he just an "expendable casualty in the US war for oil"? Was the threat to America really imminent and was there really no way other than war to resolve the problem with Iraq?

Fernando Suarez del Solar, formerly from Tijuana, Mexico, tearfully asked these questions after his son, US Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar, was killed on March 30 in Iraq.

The questions, asked publicly at a town hall meeting broadcast nationally on the Hispanic television network Univision, were directed to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Mel Martinez, the nation's highest-ranking Hispanic.

At that same town-hall meeting, as Myriam Martinez reported, many Hispanics questioned a U.S. policy of accepting immigrants to fight America's wars but doing little to grant them the citizenship they deserve. "Why wait until they're dead to give them U.S. citizenship?" one immigrant mother asked.

The distraught family of slain U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Riayan Tejeda from the Dominican Republic even rejected the government's offer. "He fought for this country for eight years, and they want to give him citizenship now?" his younger brother asked. "It doesn't matter anymore."

The family and friends of Joseph Menusa, a Filipino immigrant marine who was awarded US citizenship posthumously, may be asking the same questions although not openly. Was his death necessary? Was there another way other than war?

For now, let history answer those questions.

The war has at least opened the door to questions about immigrants who serve in the US military, comprising more than 5 percent of America's voluntary soldiers. A few like young Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez from Guatemala, killed in a tank battle outside Umm Qasr on March 21, were even illegal immigrants.

At Gutierrez's funeral, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles called for non-citizens to be granted US citizenship as soon as they are accepted into the military. "There's something terribly wrong with our immigration policies if it takes death on the battlefield in order to earn citizenship," Cardinal Mahony wrote to President Bush this month.

As the San Francisco Chronicle editorial of April 21, 2003 ("Naturalizing the Dead") pointed out, "to gain citizenship through death is a cruel fate. To truly honor the dead, President Bush should extend citizenship to all immigrants serving in the military who desire it. He must revise overly broad security initiatives that cast a cloud of suspicion on all immigrants, legal or not. He must reopen negotiations with Mexico on amnesty for undocumented immigrants who have made positive contributions to the nation."

"A framed naturalization certificate that can be displayed at a soldier's funeral is not enough. Not nearly enough."

This change in policy would greatly benefit the Filipino community as Filipinos, according to official US Department of Defense figures, comprise 20.6% of all non-citizens in the US Armed Forces, more than the combined total of Mexicans (12.7%) and other Latin Americans (5.1%).

In response to the clamor, President Bush signed an executive order fast-tracking the process for legal immigrants who serve in the military to become full-fledged citizens. The order means that immigrants serving in the military need not wait three years after obtaining their green cards before they can apply for US citizenship. They can apply immediately. Unfortunately, because of a backlog in naturalization processing, applicants typically wait eight to 10 months before they are interviewed. Cardinal Mahony and Los Angeles city officials have asked President Bush to expedite the procedure.

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