Immigrants to get citizenship
25 people to stand before president on Fourth of July
WASHINGTON — Kamar Osei Harris joined the U.S. Air Force last fall for the same reasons most service members cite — love of country and a sense of duty.
The fact that it wasn’t technically his country didn’t occur to the Canadian-born son of parents from Barbados and Jamaica.
“I didn’t even think of myself as a noncitizen,” he said, until he began thinking about becoming a pilot.
Air Force pilots are officers. Officers must be U.S. citizens. So he applied for citizenship, he said, in hopes “of serving my country even more in this way.”
Harris, 23, will no longer face a citizenship barrier after he goes to the White House on Friday for a naturalization ceremony.
President Barack Obama swears in new citizens nearly every year on July Fourth, starting the Independence Day celebrations by making the nation’s voting populace just a little bit bigger.
This latest citizenship ceremony, Obama’s third this year, carries added symbolism. Obama this week conceded that his efforts to win congressional approval of a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws have failed and said he will seek to impose reforms through executive orders.
His administration has come under fire from both sides. With more than 52,000 unaccompanied minors apprehended on the southwestern U.S. border since fall, conservatives say inadequate border security has lured them north. Meanwhile liberal groups slam Obama as “deporter in chief” for sending home hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were in the country illegally.
In addition to swearing in 25 new citizens Friday, Obama will honor celebrity chef Jose Andres with an award to mark the contributions of naturalized U.S. citizens.
Andres, who was born in Spain and became a U.S. citizen last December, owns popular restaurants in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami and Puerto Rico.
Obama usually presides over naturalization ceremonies of foreign-born members of the U.S. military. And on Friday the White House event will include 15 activeduty members from the Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy, as well as several veterans, a reservist and military spouses — from 15 countries in all.
One participant will be Harris, who entered the country in 2006 as the grandchild of a naturalized U.S. citizen. Citizenship doesn’t automatically transfer to children or grandchildren not born in the United States.
But Harris lived as if it did. He graduated from high school in Miami and got a degree in economics from Miami Dade College. He lived with his mother, Mau- reen, a store manager.
Itching for some independence, Harris enlisted in the Air Force last October. He attended boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and now is assigned to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.
One day he asked a career officer about becoming a pilot. The first requirement was U.S. citizenship, and he began his application that week.
“We’re going through tough times in this country,” Harris said. “I wanted to do my part.”
Immigration officials are permitted to expedite the application and naturalization process for active members of the military.
In May, Harris learned that he might be sworn in at the White House with his family watching. His mom yelped when he phoned her in Florida.
“I’m excited to see the president,” she said Thursday. “But the most important thing is the pride of watching Kamar become a U.S. citizen.”
She wants to apply as well but has put off tackling the paperwork.
“This inspires me,” she said. “If he can do it, maybe I can too.”