On the fast track to citizenship

Jerry Holt, Star Tribune

Pfc. Moses Nyumah, a member of the 247th Finance Detachment, walked with his mother, Louise Tamba, after a welcome home ceremony at the Roseville Armory following the unit’s return from a 12-month tour near Tikrit. Nyumah, originally from Liberia, became a U.S. citizen in Iraq.

Two members of the Minnesota National Guard served in Iraq -- and landed on the fast track to U.S. citizenship.

By JEAN HOPFENSPERGER, Star Tribune

Last update: March 7, 2008 - 8:34 PM

When Pfc. Moses Nyumah was deployed to Iraq last year, the Brooklyn Park soldier was thrilled to learn his tour of duty would include a visit by U.S. immigration officials, who would swear him in as an American citizen right at his Army base.

A fellow National Guardsman, Specialist James Agada Idoko, missed that chance to become a citizen. So immigration officials showed up at the Roseville National Guard Armory for his return this week to administer his citizenship exam on the spot, although he delayed his citizenship ceremony for personal reasons.

The two men are beneficiaries of a government plan to reward immigrant soldiers for their service.

While most immigrants enlisting the armed services now are quickly put on a fast track to citizenship, usually getting a certificate within a year, some continue to languish for years while awaiting FBI clearances or dealing with paperwork, an Army official said. "Serving [in the National Guard] and at the same time becoming a U.S. citizen was a great achievement for me and my family," said a smiling Nyumah, 28, who emigrated from Liberia, as he was hugged by his tearful mother at the armory. "This [fast-tracked citizenship] is a great idea.''

"This is a country that has done a lot for me in a short period of time,'' added Idoko, 29, of Plymouth, standing tall in his military fatigues in the armory. "I went to college here, got a job here. ... I look forward to having the right to vote ... and being part of America, land of the free."

More than 20,000 members of the armed forces are not citizens, said Marilu Cabrera, spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. New immigrants keep rotating in.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, President Bush signed an executive order to fast track the citizenship applications of soldiers, she said. The federal government has trained military officers to help immigrant soldiers with their applications, assigned special teams to handle the paperwork, and begun holding "special ceremonies" for immigrant soldiers as they depart for overseas duty, return home and even while still stationed in countries ranging from Iraq to Iceland.

"What we saw yesterday was a unique situation," said Lt. Col. Kevin Olson, spokesman for the Minnesota National Guard, after seeing Idoko ushered to a side room Thursday at the armory and given his citizenship test. "I've never seen immigration [officials] reach out like this."

Idoko, a corrections officer for the Minnesota Department of Corrections, had applied for citizenship in March 2006. Nyumah, a radiology student at St. Cloud State University, applied in April 2007. While one is now a citizen and the other simply awaiting the swearing in ceremony, Nyumah's mother has been waiting more than five years to become an American.

Leslie Lord, the liaison between the Army and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the fast-track program has "worked well." However, two problems remain. The Immigration Services website that allows applicants to file address changes doesn't accept Armed Forces post office boxes. Plus, the FBI clearances can put the breaks on everything.

"If someone's name is even vaguely similar to someone in the FBI's bad boy or bad girl list, that can cause delays," Lord said.

"Most soldiers sail through the checks within 30, 60 or 90 days,'' he said. "But there are cases of more than a year or two. These are anomalies, but they do happen and are real.''

Both Idoko and Nyumah belong to the 247th Finance Detachment, which provided finance support to an operating base near Tikrit, the ancestral home of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Nyumah's mother, Louise Tamba, is thrilled with her son's new status. She's framed his citizenship certificate and hung it over the fireplace in her Brooklyn Park home. And she replays in her head the conversation she had with her son the day he became an American.

"He called and said, 'Mom, I'm a citizen!' " she recalled. "I said, 'Thank God. Now you are fighting for your country.' "

As an American, Nyumah said he'll be able to help his mother become a citizen, travel to Liberia to directly help relatives there without worrying that he won't be able to return, and feel more a part of Minnesota life.

More than 37,000 immigrant soldiers have become citizens under the speeded-up processes since 2002, said Cabrera, who predicted that more and more of Minnesota's immigrant soldiers would become citizens as part of their military service.

"We'll definitely do more of this in the future,'' she said.

Jean Hopfensperger • 651-298-1553

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