Immigrant Marines Made Posthumous Americans

[bfez1]

L A G U N A N I G U E L, Calif. — They died for America as immigrant foreign nationals, but they will be buried as U.S. citizens.
The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services signed papers Wednesday granting posthumous citizenship to Marine Cpl. Jose Angel Garibay and Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, who were killed in combat in Iraq.

The families of the two were not present and the media were not allowed to attend the citizenship signing by the bureau's acting director, Eduardo Aguire.

"Yes, they are officially posthumous citizens. … This was the final step in the administrative process," said bureau spokesman Ron Rogers.

He said "depending on what the families and the Marines want, we will present the certificates to the families."

The two Marines were granted citizenship under President Bush's July 2002 executive order that allows family of military personnel killed under specific conditions, such as war, to apply for posthumous citizenship.

Gutierrez, 22, of Lomita, died March 21 at the port city of Umm Qasr, becoming one of the first casualties of war.

When he was 14, Gutierrez crossed into California after taking trains from Guatemala through Mexico. The orphan found a foster family, attended high school in Southern California and then joined the Marine Corps. He was assigned as an infantry rifleman with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Cardinal Roger Mahony will celebrate a funeral Mass for Gutierrez on Monday at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Catholic Church in Lomita and burial will be in Guatemala, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles said.

"We're proud as a family that he was able to become a citizen because that's one of the things he wanted to do. And we are honored," Lillian Cardenas, his foster sister, told The Associated Press.

Gutierrez's body was to remain in Delaware until arrangements between the United States and Guatemala were completed, family members said.

Garibay, 21, of Costa Mesa, died March 23 in Nasiriyah, south of Baghdad. He was a native of Jalisco, Mexico, whose family moved to the United States when he was a baby. Garibay joined the Marines three years ago and was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

His family was awaiting the return of his remains. Once returned, the family will hold a memorial service in Costa Mesa.

Several telephone calls by The AP to Camp Pendleton, which is coordinating the citizenship requests, were not immediately returned.

[JetMaxx]

Just call me "old softy", but that story brought tears to my eyes during the evening news.