re: "Journalist Admits Is Illegal, Has License Cancelled"

Patterico at Patterico's Pontifications ("Harangues that Just Make Sense") signaled his outrage.

Money quote(s):

"Another guy living in the shadows, by which I mean writing an article in a national publication about his illegal status" (Emphasis in original text. - CAA.)

Doing the work that 90 percent of the print journalists in America would give their left nut to do, i.e., write for the Washington Post.

"I am outraged. I call upon all good citizens of conscience to demand that this man be allowed to seek citizenship in the normal manner that an illegal immigrant seeks citizenship."

Off the top of my head, that "normal manner" would involve:

a.) Self-deporting;

b.) Getting someone (employer, relative with legal status) to file an immigrant petition for him with DHS;

c.) Somehow get a waiver of the 10 year bar to entry to the U.S. which he's incurred by living and working illegally all these years;

d.) Immigrating (legally) to the U.S. and receiving an actual, non-fraudulent "green card";

e.) Residing (legally) in the U.S. long enough to qualify for naturalization as a U.S. citizen.

Note: Step "e." can be accelerated by enlistment, and honorable service, in the U.S. military during a time of war.

7/22

re: "Newt and the "Palestinians" "

Kepha at Uncle Cephas ("A blog devoted to an American's ramblings on religion, culture, and politics.") suggested a talking point.

Money quote(s):

"The time is long past due for the world to tell its Arabic-speaking portion that it needs to naturalize the Falastin Arab refugees and their descendants.

It ought to be a mandatory talking point for everyone in the US foreign policy community that there are roughly around 30,000 victims of an-Nakhbar and their descendants in the USA, and that these people carry US passports whenthey travel, may freely buy and sell real estate, vote in US elections, and even run for office. Yet in the whole of the Arab world from Iraq and the Gulf to Mauretania, only Jordan, the PA, and Israel itself give the Falastin Arabs real citizenship--and even the PA is thinking of denying it to those from pre-1967 Israel.

Yet the Arab states, which insit on keeping the Falastin Arabs stateless, dare to use them as an excuse to trash US embassies and demonize the USA in their government-controlled media (Egypt, the recipient of so much US aid, was notorious in this regard)."

Frankly, there's not much I'd add to that.

12/11

FN - Bomb Suspect's Citizenship Raises Questions About Naturalization Process

From my archive of press clippings:

Fox News

Bomb Suspect's Citizenship Raises Questions About Naturalization Process


FOXNews.com

Updated May 04, 2010

In this photo from the social networking site Orkut.com, a man who was identified by neighbors in Connecticut as Faisal Shahzad, is shown. (AP/Orkut.com)

The suspect in the Times Square car bombing attempt is the latest in a series of U.S. citizens and green card holders to be implicated in a terror plot inside the United States, raising questions about the naturalization process that turns foreigners into Americans.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Several hurdles are in place for immigrants to attain U.S. citizenship and, in turn, its platinum-status passport. Pakistani-born suspect Faisal Shahzad, according to reports, passed clean through his security checks and became a U.S. citizen in April 2009. He first entered the United States on a student visa in the late 1990s.

An official with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said "it's too early" to say whether any signs were missed in Shahzad's naturalization process. But the official acknowledged that any screening is just "a snapshot in time" and can't catch everything."

&

"For those who come from outside the United States, the naturalization process is complicated and lengthy.

Applicants generally need a sponsor -- a relative, spouse or employer -- to get the green card. Then they have to wait between three and five years to qualify for citizenship.


The citizenship process includes not just background checks, but a citizenship test and final interview. The interview officer has the authority to reject the applicant at the end of the process or send him or her back for further review.


Click here to review the questions on the citizenship application form."

re: "Kwame James, Shoe Bomb Hero, Becomes Citizen"

James Joyner at Outside the Beltway ("an online journal of politics and foreign affairs analysis") has some good news:

"Kwame James, a private citizen who helped subdue Richard Read (sic), is now an American citizen."

___

The correct surname is Reid.

re: " "One nation, in a barn, under The Independent." "

Robert at Expat Yank (" One American living in the south of England") is thinking about nationality.

Money quote(s):

"The U.S., Australia and Canada are the notable exceptions: nationality does not revolve around any one essentialist attribute. Birth in all three makes one, default, a citizen. Or the immigrant chooses to join physically, and takes action to do so."

&

"Aside from birth or naturalization, one vital part of the glue that has “held” a place like America together hasn’t been Christian belief (although most Americans are Christians, at least nominally) so much as it has been in the joining the “civic religion”: for lack of a better description, the “worship” of “America.” As laughable as that notion might seem, and as variably as it is practiced, that embracing of a “mystical America” has created “Americans.”

Thus one Barack H. Obama is able to persuade enough “Americans” that he is part of everyone’s “Church of America.” And they accept that. Had he not done so, or had enough of them not been willing to accept that, he never would have been elected president.

That method of “assimilation” exists almost nowhere else. In most elsewheres, nationality is rooted firstly in blood and in revealed faith of one type or another. "

PI - Fleeing to Philly: Thousands of Liberians seek asylum here

From my archive of press clippings:

Philadelphia Inquirer

Fleeing to Philly: Thousands of Liberians seek asylum here


Posted on Wed, Feb. 18, 2009


By STEPHANIE FARR


Philadelphia Daily News


farrs@phillynews.com 215-854-4225


During the 1800s, Americans of African descent moved in the thousands to Liberia, a West African country founded by freed slaves.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Between 1990 and 2009, 32,543 Liberian refugees were admitted nationwide, said David M. Santos, northeast regional media manager with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

By 2006, more Liberian refugees had resettled in the greater Philadelphia area than in any other metropolitan region in the country, according to a 2008 report from the Brookings Institute, a public-policy nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C."

"Refugees are given employment authorization and after a year are required to apply for lawful permanent-resident status, Santos said. Refugees are eligible for naturalization five years after they arrive in the United States.

In 2006, Liberia was taken off a U.S. Refugee Admission Program's list, which allows people to apply for refugee status if they have a parent, spouse or child in the United States."

JO - Changing a child's name by Deed Poll

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Observer

Changing a child's name by Deed Poll

KNOWING YOUR RIGHTS

Margarette May Macaulay


Monday, January 26, 2009


Dear Mrs Macaulay,

Can I change the name of my child by deed poll in Jamaica? The child was born in the US, but has lived in Jamaica since birth. He has not been to the US ever. He is naturalised and has a naturalisation certificate that makes him Jamaican. I want to get a Jamaican passport and register him in school with a name other than that on his birth certificate.

What is the process for doing a Deed Poll?

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"I would suggest that the best course for you would be that you effect the change of name in the United States where he was born, and then you can submit to the Ministry of Justice his birth certificate with the change of name endorsed thereon, so that his Jamaican Naturalisation Certificate can have the requisite endorsement made thereon or a new one issued."

S&S - Seven-year-old at Yokosuka is first child to get citizenship under new rule

Stars and Stripes

Seven-year-old at Yokosuka is first child to get citizenship under new rule


By Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes

Pacific edition, Monday, March 2, 2009

Erik Slavin / S&S

Martin Ulsano, 7, raises his hand during the oath of citizenship while standing next to his father, Petty Officer 2nd Class Caesar Ulsano, at a ceremony at Yokosuka Naval Base Friday. Ulsano became the first child to receive a certificate of citizenship under a 2008 law designed for family members of overseas servicemembers. In all, 72 Marines, sailors, soldiers and family members celebrated their citizenship Friday.

Erik Slavin / S&S
Martin Ulsano poses with servicemembers and spouses who received their certificates of naturalization. Also in the group is U.S. Embassy Charge d'Affaires James P. Zumwalt.

Erik Slavin / S&S
Martin Ulsano stands with U.S. Embassy Charge d'Affaires James P. Zumwalt, who's about to cut a cake honoring the new citizens.

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The most noticeable of the 72 people with hands raised for the U.S. oath of citizenship Friday stood barely higher than the pews Friday at Yokosuka’s Chapel of Hope.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Martin Miles Ulsano, 7, became the first child to take the oath since the 2008 Defense Authorization Act allowed family members of servicemembers to become citizens overseas, according to officials."

WVN-JO - Patriotism, sense of belonging rewards of citizenship journey

From my archive of press clippings:

West Volusia News-Journal Online

Patriotism, sense of belonging rewards of citizenship journey

January 22, 2009

By PATRICIO G. BALONA Staff writer

ORLANDO -- "I pledge allegiance to U.S. flag and the country. . ."

"Daddy, you are not saying it right," my daughter interrupted.

Her tiny hand over her heart, my daughter, Josee, recited the 31-word pledge so naturally.
I repeated after her, memorizing the verse as I drove to the Orlando office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to become a U.S. citizen.

Read the whole article here.

WT - FBI security checks called deficient. Justice questions reliability.

From my archive of press clippings:

Washington Times

FBI security checks called deficient. Justice questions reliability.

Jerry Seper

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Security procedures used by the FBI to check immigration and naturalization applicants have "serious deficiencies" that have resulted in large backlogs and raised questions about the reliability of the information, a Justice Department report said Monday.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"In a highly redacted 120-page report, the department's Office of the Inspector General said that while the FBI generally was able to process millions of fingerprint checks "in an accurate and timely manner," the bureau's name check processes rely on "outdated and inefficient technology, personnel who have limited training, overburdened supervisors and inadequate quality assurance measures."

As a result, the name check process is backlogged and also provides little assurance that necessary information is retrieved and transmitted to customer agencies," Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said."

&

"The IG's review examined the FBI's National Name Check Program (NNCP) and its Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS).

FBI Assistant Director John Miller said that while processing nearly 77,000 name check requests per week, the FBI has completed nearly 97 percent of the requests in the last five years and that the majority - nearly 90 percent - were completed within 120 days, well within the required 180-day limit."