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On February 24, the New York Times published a factually inaccurate front-page article entitled “After the War, a New Battle to Become Citizens” about the commitment U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has made to processing military naturalizations in a timely manner. We intensely manage every aspect of the path to citizenship for our immigrant Armed Forces Service Members. As an American by choice and a veteran myself, this program has my close personal attention, and I can tell you that it is a real success story for our agency, the Department of Homeland Security, and our nation.
In 2007 alone, USCIS naturalized 4,735 military service members, with more than 1,300 taking the Oath of Allegiance at ceremonies overseas, in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and along the Demilitarized Zone in South Korea. Since 2001, USCIS has helped more than 36,900 immigrant soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines become United States citizens. These service members and their families have made extraordinary sacrifices for our nation, and USCIS does everything possible to ensure that qualified immigrants who serve in our military receive U.S. citizenship at the absolute earliest opportunity.
Despite exhaustive efforts to fulfill our obligation to our men and women in uniform, there are rare instances when we are unable to favorably approve their applications in an expedited time frame. Service members frequently move from post to post, sometimes internationally. Therefore, gathering the information necessary to process their applications requires additional time, notwithstanding the significant efforts employed by USCIS to ensure that applications are handled in a timely and expeditious manner. Let me say this, nothing stands in our way when it comes to supporting the military. We move mountains and travel to military installations worldwide to help members of the military in their quest to become citizens of the United States. This is the least we can do on behalf of a nation grateful for their service.
Working with the Department of Defense (DoD), we have, through these military naturalization efforts, cut in half the number of non-citizens serving on active duty. But numbers alone cannot tell the story of the USCIS commitment. USCIS has a specialized team at our Nebraska Service Center dedicated to processing military naturalization cases. Once the up-front processing is complete, dedicated specialists in our field offices complete the interview and testing for military naturalization -- a privilege our employees consider an honor. These immigration experts work tirelessly to ensure that applications are processed and completed before these brave men and women are deployed to combat zones overseas.
As of May 1, 2006, we began accepting fingerprints from service members submitted at the time of enlistment. This upfront intake of information has helped streamline the process for service members. In addition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will expedite background security screening for any service member who notifies us of an impending deployment.
To improve communication and outreach with the armed forces community, USCIS recently established a dedicated toll-free hotline exclusively for military members and their families stationed in the United States and overseas. Through January 2008, we’ve responded to more than 7,200 calls requesting information about immigration and citizenship services. USCIS also accepts emails to ensure that the military, some of whom are stationed overseas, can find the most expeditious way to communicate with USCIS about their pending applications. Additional efforts include local initiatives in communities with large military populations, the development and dissemination of educational materials, a USCIS military brochure and targeted media efforts designed to reach our constituents both in the United States and overseas.
In all of our military naturalization efforts, we work in concert with our colleagues at DoD to ensure that the military community has accurate and up-to-date information about immigration services and benefits. We provide training to military lawyers, and USCIS community relations officers regularly conduct seminars and classes at military bases around the country, answering questions about naturalization and assisting with paperwork.
I am proud and extremely honored to serve this agency in support of our military men and women and their families. USCIS has always been, is now, and will remain steadfastly committed to exhausting every effort to ensure that the processing of military naturalization applications are a top priority and that qualified members of the military receive this honor on behalf of a grateful nation.
Emilio T. GonzálezDirector, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services