Trini soldier wanted to be US citizen

When Army Reserve Sergeant Kendell Frederick applied to become a United States citizen, he assumed that he would be approved quickly. After all, he was being deployed to Iraq, where he’d be expected to fight on behalf of the United States.

But the process dragged on for months because of paperwork mix-ups and misfiled fingerprints. In the meantime, Frederick, 21, was sent to Iraq.

Intent on straightening it out anyway, he went to a nearby base for a new set of fingerprints.

But Frederick never returned. On the way back from the base, he was killed in a roadside bombing.

Frederick’s death in late 2005 highlights the plight of the more than 23,600 non-citizens serving in the US military. Although they’re expected to fight and possibly die for the United States, they can encounter a daunting bureaucracy when they attempt to naturalise.

“My son put his life on the line for this country,” his mother, Michelle Murphy, said recently, “yet he had to beg for his citizenship.”

Frederick, a native of Trinidad, faced such difficulties despite efforts to make it easier for military personnel to become citizens. In 2002, President George Bush signed an executive order that made military personnel eligible to apply for citizenship immediately instead of having to wait three years. Since then, 20,000 military personnel have received US citizenship.

Chris Bentley, a spokesman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that processes the applications, said he didn’t believe immigration authorities should be blamed for the delays in Frederick’s case.

“I think this is a unique case where errors were made and things simply didn’t go right,” he said. “I don’t think it reflects a larger problem with bureaucracy.”

But many military personnel continue to wait months — some even years — for their applications to be approved. Of the estimated 9,800 military applications pending currently, 751 have waited more than six months. Frederick wanted to become a US citizen for similar reasons, his Trinidadian mother said.

He first tried to apply for citizenship in June 2005. But when he failed to check the correct box identifying himself as a military serviceman, his application was sent back.

By then, Frederick was stationed in Iraq as a mechanic. His mother checked the correct box on his behalf and sent it to the Vermont office that had returned it. But immigration officials returned his application again, instructing her to send it to Nebraska, where military applications should be processed.

Days after receiving it, immigration authorities flagged his application once more. This time, his fingerprints were the problem. Somehow, officials hadn’t asked him for a required signature.

Murphy said she was told that her son would have to come in person to have the fingerprints redone. When she pointed out that he was overseas, they instructed her to send an official letter, attesting to his military service.

Then, she said, they told the family to wait.

On October 18, 2005, immigration authorities received official notification of Frederick’s case. But they still didn’t have a new set of fingerprints.

One day later, Frederick was killed.

After his death, Frederick’s body was placed in a coffin draped in an American flag and sent back to the United States, where he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

When Homeland Security officials heard of his death, they rushed to process his application. Within weeks, he was granted citizenship.

Frederick was one of 85 military personnel who have been awarded citizenship after their deaths since 2002.

But Frederick’s mother believes the US government should forgo the second round of background checks because the military already does its own checks. That way, she said, all military personnel could be naturalised at the time of recruitment, or at the very least, before being sent to combat, she said.

“No one should be made to go through the hassle my son went through when they’re in the middle of a war,” Murphy said. “If they’re good enough to be in the military, they should be good enough to be US citizens.”