Uncommon Valor
On Friday, February 27, I had the distinct privilege of participating in a Naturalization Ceremony at the Washington District Office in Fairfax, Va. Among the ceremony's 30 candidates was a young man with an inspiring story that reminds us of the importance of our work at USCIS and the priceless value of the life and liberties we cherish as Americans.
Marine Lance Corporal Jose Gasca, a native of Mexico, served in Iraq with the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines. Lance Corporal Gasca lost both his legs to an improvised explosive device during combat operations last September. He's currently undergoing rehabilitation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he is learning to walk once again.
When Lance Corporal Gasca, with his wife and young son by his side, raised his right hand to take the Oath of Allegiance, he joined a long line of naturalized American heroes who served and sacrificed on behalf of our nation before becoming American citizens. There are few words I can use to describe the overwhelming sense of appreciation and admiration I have for men and women like Lance Corporal Gasca. As an agency, we best express that gratitude by completing military naturalization cases as quickly as possible.
USCIS employees who work with immigrant service members consider this responsibility both a privilege and an honor. In partnership with the Department of Defense, we do all we can to ensure that as many military applications as possible are processed and completed before these brave men and women are deployed to combat zones overseas.
In total, USCIS naturalized more than one million citizens during fiscal year 2008 and we've naturalized more than 45,000 U.S. service members since September 2001. Each new American has made a personal sacrifice to become part of our American fabric. None, however, have made more striking sacrifices than Jose Gasca and his fellow soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who voluntarily took up arms to defend rights and liberties they had yet to secure for themselves or their families.
Mike Aytes, Acting Deputy Director
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Labels: citizenship, USCIS
posted by DHS at
3:01 PM
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20 Comments:
Thanks for publishing this heart-warming story. It's an inspiration to us all and reminds us all how important the work that we do is to all Americans. Hopefully, CIS will be featured on the series Homeland Security USA soon.
Terry
By
Anonymous, At
March 9, 2009 10:44 AM
thank u you jose God bless you and God bless usa
By
Anonymous, At
March 9, 2009 3:29 PM
Absolutely a moving story. Thank you and thanks to Lance Corpral Jose Gasca for his service
By
Anonymous, At
March 9, 2009 9:45 PM
I am happy that many people that work at the USCIS offices are people with integrity and respect, they respect those whose serve, and honor them with the citizenship of our nation. Everyone who served honorably in the US ARMED FORCES should be granted citizenship regardless of their past. They are serving so we can all have a piece of mind.
By
Anonymous, At
March 9, 2009 9:51 PM
Is a great value the achievement of the corporal, as well the merit offered by the Department of Defense. Everybody who is fighting for our country should be granted with such a distinction, not even have to wait to comeback injured to get this ceremony, all of us should get immediate naturalization when we sign up to fight for the freedom and the liberty of our country.
By
Anonymous, At
March 10, 2009 2:53 PM
I LOVE AMERICA AND THATS THE REASON I SIGNED UP WITH THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE AND I AGREE WITH THE ABOVE COMMENT WE SHOULD NOT HAVE TO WAIT TO BE INJURED TO GET SUCH CEREMONIES BECAUSE EVERYONE IN THE MILITARY CONUS OR OCONUS SHOULD BE GRANTED CITIZENSHIP BECAUSE EVERYONE PLAYS A BIG ROLE IN GETTING THE MISSION ACCOMPLISHED; BE IT A SERVICES MEMBER WHO PROVIDES FOOD OR THE PERSONELLIST THAT ACOMPLISHES CASUALTY REPORT OR PROVIDE SERVICE TO MEMBERS AND THEIR FAMILIES. FINALLY USCIS IS DOING A WONDERFUL JOB AT HELPING MEMBERS GET WHAT THEY DESERVE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE AND BIG HOORAH TO EVERYONE SERVING DURING THIS TIME OF WAR.
By
SrA FOLAMI, At
March 10, 2009 10:22 PM
I want to congratulate the uscis employees who share the feelings of Mr. Mike Aytes, Acting Deputy Director for doing what they did for Marine Lance Corporal Jose Gasca and specially to Mr. Mike Aytes who shows that with actions and not words is the way to demonstrate the respect, admiration and the help that Corporal Gasca needs in order to have his family with him in order to have a faster recovery. Mr. Gasca deserves the admiration of all the american people for his valor of joining the armed forces. He knew that his life was in the line and that he could loose not only his life, but parts of his body as well, but in order to serve his adopted country and become an american citizen he took the risk. That is valor! People like him is what makes america the the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
By
Anonymous, At
March 12, 2009 1:41 PM
I believe USCIS is doing great job in naturalizing our new Citizens. I wish the same could be done to unite US Citizen Spouses and kids with their loved ones. Something needs to be done with VSC. CSC is processing Jan and Feb applications right now But VSC still processing June and July 2008. It has been long ride for US Citizen who would like to be united with their spouses and kids. The current process (USCIS, NVC and overseas embassy) need to be changed or at least expedited. It will take minimum of 9 to 18 months to bring our loved ones to USA but B-2 holder could bring their loved ones in less than 3 months. Please MR. Director Do something about this issue.
By
Anonymous, At
March 13, 2009 10:22 AM
I believe Mr. Mike Aytes, Acting Deputy Director of USCIS, is doing a very good job of setting the right example to his fellow employees, in regard to the treatment given to the veterans of the this conflict. But not all the other services follow his example. I am a 68 years of age, Veteran of the Conflict that started on Feb.28 1961 and ended on
October 15, 1978. I applied for naturalization under 329 of INA and I will have my oath ceremony to receive my naturalization on March 18, 2009 in San Diego CA. My daughter,16 years old had aB-2 Visa but it was taken away by an employee of the American Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico during a renwal of it.
The officer siad that this way I will be forced to arrenge for her as Legal Resident. My daugfther explain that I was a Veteran, that I was disabled and that I was studing to qualify for the requirements to become a citizen, that I was in and out of the Veterans hospital in San Diego and that it was difficult for me to do all that was needed.
Neverthaless, that officer was hard to hear to her plea and blind to her tears, (she was 14 years old).
I feel sad because I dont have my wifer nor my daughter with me to join me at this moment that has taken me so long to achieve. Should the assistance be different to veterans from past conflicts?
Your help will be greatly,appreciated and once again, you will demonstrate to the Military apparatus and the millions of veterans under 329 of ina with actions and not word your respect and admiration for all the soldiers that have served in past and present conflicts. You could get in touch with Representative Bob Filner Assistant, Vivian in Chula Vista , CA . Thank you
By
Anonymous, At
March 16, 2009 6:02 PM
This is a great American story. They made this great nation stronger. I did apply for naturalization to the very first day i was eligible for. I had my interview 3 weeks ago and my file has been recommended for approval. Now i have been waiting for me oath letter from Washington field office.
Recently, it came to my attention that some people from the same office have given the opportunity for same day oath. That means a number of people have filed after us, but became citizen before us. It is great that their dream came true faster. But what i don't understand the justification for keeping us waiting when we meet all the criteria.
I hope someone with power from USCIS will create system which we all can believe in and say is fair.
By
Anonymous, At
March 16, 2009 10:20 PM
I have good news to share with all the readers of the Leadership Journal. Today, I received my Certificate of Naturalization.I am a new Citizen in this wonderful Country! Thanks to the sacrifice of millions of fighting men/women, that forged it with sweat, blood and tears. Sometimes being dismemberd, some times loosing their life, paying the price of freedom. Starting with the revolutionary war, up to the present conflict, all those that served and are serving, were aware of the the possible cost and yet they decided in favor of serving.
Marine Lance Corporal Jose Gasca is an inspiration to the True Patriots as well as Mr. Aytes, ADD should be to his fellow employees of all the USCIS and State Department, and feel proud that just and expedited work from them, contributes to reach the persuit of happiness as was intended by the founders of this country for all the proud veterans,included me.To accomplish this we need of the assistance of these departments to have our loved ones with us.
God bless America, grant prompt recovery to Lance Corporal Jose Gasca, and give Mr. Aytes the will to find newer and expeditious way to reunite families. God bless us All.
By
Anonymous, At
March 18, 2009 6:28 PM
Mr. Director I appreciate all the good work you have been doing. I just received rescheduling/postponed letter (N400 application) one week before my interview date. I have not given any reason or when the new date will be. I received my interview letter 2 months ago, I have been reading and preparing since then. The letter comes from my local office. In my opinion, this is not fare, the interview should go forward. USCIS could approve my civic test and wait for the additional documents that they need and approve my Citizen later on. Please Mr. Director let local offices stop these practices and use commonsense. I have been in this country for over 11 years following the rules and paying all my taxes on time. My wife and kids have been waiting for years and years to be united with me, I though I am almost there but it seems not.
FYI-I knew may people who applied months after me and they completed their oath already, please revisit the practice as well. It should always be, FIFO if the person does not have any issues with his application.
By
Anonymous, At
March 19, 2009 3:31 PM
I have just learned that you have stopped work site enforcement. I can not believe you and Obama would do this when we have 7.7 million illegals takeing American jobs. We have over 12,000,000 Americans out of work and you simply don't care. I have a grandson, an Iraq veteran that is unemployed and you want to let these illegals keep the jobs over our own brave veterans. Unbelievable.
James Helms
By
Anonymous, At
March 19, 2009 3:33 PM
I want to express my gratitud to all the USCIS employees at the Lincoln, Nebraska Service Center. But more so to those employees that in certain way participated in the process of my application N-400, N-426 and G-325, which I feel was very efficient and expeditious and that enabled me to become a citizen through the process of naturalization.
I will be submitting form I-130 to petition my daughter to come to U.S. and form I-485 but the problem that I have now is: the economy, health, age,increased fees for the processing of such forms.I am on fixed income from VA and SSA for service connected disability and the disability payment from SSA, because my age, was converted to retirement benefit. My daughter should have been receiving payment from Social Security since two years ago but she was not incorporated into the system because she has to be 31 days continuoslly in the US territory, in order to qualify. I wonder if INS could set up some system of instalment payments that will allow Veterans to pay on monthly basis, or we could give VA a signed authorization to take certain amount of money from our Disability Compensation Pay every month and pay it directly to INS. That will really give meaning to Mr. Lincoln's
words of March 4, 1865: ".....to care for him who shall have born the battle, and for his widow and his orphan-to do all wich may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace, among our selves, and with all nations. Very Profound Statement!
President Calvin Coolidge stated in 1924: American
Citizenship has been secured by untold toil and effort. It will be maintained by no other method.
It demands the best of men and women have to give.
But it likewise awards its partakers the best there is on earth. 144 years later, Marine Lance Corporal Jose Gasca is living those words. God bless him.
By
Anonymous, At
March 20, 2009 1:16 AM
I want to express my "gracias to Marine Lance Corporal Jose Gasca and to his family as well".
Gracias for his sacrifice. I ask the Good Lord to give him the strenght to endure the physical pain so he can be walking again; the emotional strenght to get over the loss of his lower extremities, and gratitud to the Almighty for keeping him alive.
To his family, strenght,patience, love and pride.
Strenght and patience during his recovery, Love for him as the first day they felt it. Pride in him, because his action and sacrifice ha been an inspiration. America has been made aware as to what extent, as to what price, we the immigrants are willing to sustent in order to serve our adopted country and become citizens of this great Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.Hermano, mis respetos y saludos para ti. Honor a Quien Honor, merece.
Honor to He whom Honor deserves.
By
Anonymous, At
March 23, 2009 12:52 PM
I wish i had a rosy comment, but I don't. I am a veteran of the National Guard. I did 6 years in the reserves and 2 years IRR. I ETSed October 28, 2001 and received an honorable discharge. I applied for my naturalization in the February 2008 time frame. I went through the finger print process and finally took my Citizenship test at the end of June 2008. When i went in for the interview, they had not sent in my G-325B, I was told it would be a 4 to 6 weeks to get that done. Then i should get something in the mail. 9 months later and after 2 inquires with responses to wait longer, still nothing. So yeah I guess it only matters if you are still in the military, once your out you become second class. Whats worse with DOD policies you can't even re-enlist back in after 8 years of service. So sorry if this is not a rosy comment, but I hope someone at USCIS is reading this.
By
Anonymous, At
March 26, 2009 1:25 PM
What a truly inspiring story, and God bless to this brave man and his family.
By
Western Art, At
March 26, 2009 1:41 PM
This space is to be dedicated to Honor Marine Lance Corporal JOSE GASCA, who incurred severe injuries while in on a military operation in Irak. I, as a former member of the military,(3 years active and 3 years reserve), during the Viet Nam era,Veteran, and now citizen of this country,being a native of Mexico,
join the other thousands of veterans of all wars to give you, JOSE, GASCA a WELL DESERVED SALUTE, WITH
A "PRESENTATION OF ARMS AND 21 GUN SALUTE".
VETERANS, ATTNHUT...PRESENT ARMS! COMMENCE FIRE !
BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,
BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,
BOOM.
I KNOW, THAT ALL THE VETERANS THAT KNOW ABOUT YOU,
FEEL THE SAME WAY I DO. YOU DESERVE THIS SALUTE.
THIS SALUTE IS ALSO FOR ALL THE SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN
PAST AND PRESENT WHO SERVED OUR COUNTRY! I THINK IS TIME FOR ALL THE VETERANS TO BE TREATED AS FIRST CLASS CITIZEN, WHETHER THEY SERVED IN ACTIVE OR READY RESERVE, WHETHER THEY ARE CITIZENS BY BIRTH OR NATURALIZED, WHETHER THEY SPEAK PERFECT ENGLISH OR WHETHER THEY HAVE FUNNY ACCENT(LIKE ME). WHETHER THE COLOR IS BLOND, BLACK, BROWN, RED, YELLOW OR ANY OTHER COLOR, SHOULD NOT MATTER. WE ARE ALL AMERICANS.
I THINK THAT IS THE IDEA MR. MIKE AYTES, ACTING DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF USCIS, IS TRYING TO CONVEY TO THE EMPLOYEES OF THE SERVICE, AND BY HIS EXAMPLE, HE IS DOING IT.
JOSE, DIOS TE BENDIGA Y TE DE UNA PRONTA
RECUPERACION.
TUS HERMANOS DE ARMAS.
GOD BLESS AMERICA! GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES!
GOD BLESS ALL THE VETERANS!
O
By
Anonymous, At
March 30, 2009 9:11 PM
After looking at the comments made before this, I want to say: Thank you, MLCorporal Jose Gasca. Why?
Because you have shown the reality of SERVING.
Through you and thanks to Mr. Aytes, who opened this journal, we now know that in armed forced exist many service members, who are not citizens by birth and that they know of the dangers of combat, yet they are willing to take the risk, just like you did.
Any person who joins the armed forces, knows now what the price tag, could be. And other thing, the sacrifice made, some times it will not be appreciated by others in government: no jobs, no proper assistance, some times we are looked at as if we were scam. Yet, we serve. why? DEMOCRACY= AMERICA
The key to really make a great democratic country,is in your hands. Now you have your Naturalization Certificate, now you can vote! Now you can tell our
public officials the changes we would like to see.
Also, now we can condemn or commend and ask for what we want through our vote.The first thing I will be asking my congressman, Mr. Bob Filner is to introduce a more friendly legilative toward the Serviceme's families that are outside of the U.S.
God Bless you Jose Gasca and you too, Mr. Aytes.
American Servicemen, starting with the Continental Army up to the present conflict and those other that we will have in the future,have paid and wil pay a price for starting, maintaining & keeping DEMOCRACY
By
Anonymous, At
April 3, 2009 8:04 PM
The story related by My. Mike Aytes, USCIS Acting Deputy Director, regarding Marine Lance Corporal
Jose Gasca, is an eye openning story that allow us to see the reality of war and the sacrifices that our soldiers have to endure in order to serve our country. Thank you, Corporal Jose Gasca and also thank you, Mr Aytes for allowing us to use this channel of communication and express our appreciation and honor our heroes.With the permission of Corporal Gasca and Mr. Aytes, I would like to honor another heroe, one that not to many people knew about but that in this troubled times
is good to be remmebered, because in America, heroes are everywhere. This story is about a Border Patrol Officer from the state of Florida, that was in temporary duty, in the Imperial Beach sector of the San Diego County, State of California. The date was: the 1st. Monday of September, 1979. He is like the
Unknown Soldier. Very few people probably remembers his name, but his action should be known and remembered by all the compassionate USCIS officers. This September, 2009 will be 30 years that happened,
and if I could get the assistance of the Service to locate him, We, the people of San Ysidro and Tijuana would celebrate again just like we did 30 years ago.
What is this action that deserves to be Known?
As I said, this officer was posted in a park known as "Friendship Park" located in the southwestern corner of the United States,bordering to the south with Mexico and to west with the Pacific Ocean.
That day, his patrol car was atop of the highest elevation of the park, next to the fence that separated the two countries, he was observing the people using the beaches on both sides, suddenly there were screams in the Mexican side, and people shouting for someone to help a young man that was dragged to the deep waters, by the treacherous RIP currents, typical of the Pacific Ocean.The Patrol Officer, taking off part of his uniform and placing his weapon inside his vehicle, ran toward the ocean
got into the cold water and swam and swam, struggling with the big waves and trying to locate the young man, finally when the young man appeared to have disappeared from sight,and after some while,people started jumping up and down with joy when they saw the rescuer bringing the young man out to the beach.
The officer proceeded to revive the victim and when the young man gave signals of life, people around the officer started applauding and showing their admiration for his action.
How I know this? Because of my work with the community, I was appointed by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to the San Diego County Immigration Council in 1976 and and worked close with Mr. Bergerson,Commissioner; Mr. Fink,Regional
Director, Mr.Gerdhart, Chief Border Patrol Officer, Mr Richard Cameron,Deputy Chief Officer,San Diego District, Customs officer Manny Najera, Mr. Heiniky,
Intelligence officer and many more that were involved like Mr. Michael Walsh, U.S. District Attorney, San Diego, CA (1976-1979)to create better public relations between the Border Patrol Service and the community.You might remember the findings of the Congressional Investigation of Congressman from
Los Angeles, Mr. Edward Roybal, where several officers were rejected and dropped from the service.
That was the reason why there were officers in Temporary duty in San Diego. The morale was low among the officers after the findings of the congressional investigation were known. As member of the Council I was elected to work with the folks and the officers, to congraciate each other and this was
attained by interaction and bringing the best of the service. When the action of this brave and valiant
Patrol Officer was known,the City of San Ysidro
Service clubs like Lions, Rotary International, Scool District and several other organizations from San Diego County, joined to present a recognition and Honor this Officer for Actions Beyond the call of Duty.
The Celebration took place in a building called
" Four Winds ", it was crammed with people from all over the County. Oficers of High rank, were present
with their class A uniforms, the file and rank were full of joy and the morale was very,very high.
The happiest person was the wife of the Patrol Officer to be honored.Acooperation made by his fellow officers, made possible to bring his wife from Florida to California, to be present.
I know is a long story, but I feel it had to be known and I hope that the officer from florida or his wife or his children get to read this.
your friendly Doctor.
By
Anonymous, At
April 7, 2009 4:09 AM
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