Posted on 06/15/2006 6:32:34 AM PDT by RDTF
NORFOLK - Sophia March had never even heard of the Statu e of Liberty when her airplane touched down in New York on April 10, 1996.
Coming from St. Catherine, Jamaica, she joined her father in the United States to broaden her world and prospects. Eventually, she entered the Navy.
While U.S. politicians bicker over the role of immigrants in the United States, Petty Officer 2nd Class March is clear about her roles as mother, Navy wife, and storekeeper aboard the Norfolk-based amphibious ship Kearsarge.
On Wednesday morning, March, 31, added another identity: U.S. citizen.
March and 150 other service members - veterans of scores of deployments to troubled seas and broken lands - took the oath of citizenship during a ceremony aboard the aircraft carrier George Washington.
"It's something I wanted to do," she said in her soft Jamaican accent.
Even as Congress considers immigration legislation, the military has made it easier for legal immigrants in the armed services to become citizens. The number of service members becoming citizens increased tenfold in a four- year period, from 749 in 2001 to 7,600 in 2004.
(Excerpt) Read more at mondotimes.com ...
OATH OF CITIZENSHIP U.S. Navy sailors take the Oath of Citizenship at the naturalization ceremony held aboard USS George Washington while in port Naval Station Norfolk, Va., June 14, 2006. More than 140 U.S. sailors, Marines and soldiers from 45 countries took the Oath of Citizenship given by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Michael D. Blackwell II
I have no problem with people earning citizenship this way and have my respect for doing so. I just have a major problem with people illegally crossing the border and demanding rights and services they have no right to.
Brian
I've got no problem with that and I don't know anyone who does.
If you want to serve America in our armed forces then welcome to America! If you want to sneak across the border illegally then go the hell home.
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