MIAMI - When Staff Sgt. Luis Garcia joined the U.S. Army, he was deployed first to Afghanistan and then to Iraq - all before he became a citizen of the country he swore to defend and serve.

It wasn't for lack of trying. The Honduras-born Soldier, who came to Miami with his family when he was 6, had filed his papers just before he joined the military in 2000. But deployments made it difficult for him to meet with immigration officials to pursue his citizenship case.

Stateside once again in 2005, Garcia took his case to a military liaison on citizenship issues. Garcia, like thousands of others, benefited from President Bush's 2002 order that sped up citizenship proceedings for noncitizens serving in the U.S. military.

"He looked at my paperwork and said, `You know what? This could be done in two weeks.' And sure enough, two weeks later he called me and said, `Come in next month for your swearing,'" Garcia said. "So there it was."

That April, Garcia joined more than 35,125 members of the military who have become naturalized U.S. citizens since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Among them, South Florida residents like Army Spc. Olivier Pratt of Broward County - a Haitian native naturalized this year at a ceremony at Baghdad's opulent Al Faw Palace.

Pratt said he sees himself as part of a long line of immigrants who made the United States the country it is today.

"Basically, this country was built on immigrants," said Pratt. "I'm just a little brick in the wall, but I'm a part of it."

Also at the ceremony: Sgt. Alejandro Silva of Davie, Fla. They were among 161 military men and women who became U.S. citizens at the Baghdad palace. Army Gen. David Petraeus spoke at the ceremony, as did Arizona Sen. John McCain, Republican candidate for president. Making the event extra special for Silva: his Army wife, Shelby, watched the ceremony. "It was very emotional," said Silva, a Venezuelan native.

This Veterans Day about 200 immigrant military men and women in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan became U.S. citizens. The overseas ceremonies over two days included Soldiers, Sailors and Marines from 41 different nations, said Chris Rhatigan, spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

"Just being a citizen - now all these doors that were shut before are open," said Garcia, 33. "And the voting - I finally got my voter's card."

Garcia continues to serve his adopted country, working full-time as a supply sergeant in the Army National Guard at a Miami armory. He lives in the Miami Lakes area.

"I'm contributing my part," he said. "Not only ... being able to vote, but also by being in the military, as well - doing my part, stepping up, doing things that other people wouldn't think of doing."

Citizenship for Soldiers who are legal immigrants with green cards is a winning proposition for the military, too. It's a benefit recruiters can mention to prospects, and it gives soldiers a greater stake in the country. But military officers note that citizenship is an individual choice.

"We would not want to deny any qualified person the opportunity to serve their nation," said Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a defense department spokesman. "The Army seeks to recruit the best, the brightest, the highest performers - the same type of person that colleges and other employment recruiters would go after. We want to harness that talent."

The U.S. military met or nearly met all of its recruiting goals last year, though in previous years the number of recruits has fallen short.

For Ricardo Piereck, born in Brazil, the military offered a clear-cut route to higher education. Recruited while still at Miami Palmetto Senior High, he became an Army medical technician - a job he currently holds - and a naturalized citizen in 2003.

He still remembers the ceremony at the Miami Beach Convention Center. "It was a little nerve-wracking, getting up there in front of thousands of people to lead the pledge," said Piereck, 25.

He said he has a brother in the Army in Korea who also has filed for naturalization.

And though it took the staff sergeant two years to become a citizen - he filed his application before the process was accelerated for soldiers - he says the delay and several hundred dollars in costs were worth it.

"I love this country, I really do. It's afforded me so many opportunities," he said. "Here, if you put in the sweat equity, it will pay off at the end. ... It was inconvenient at the time - but nothing that's good is easy, right?"

Citizenship ceremonies overseas like the ones that will commemorate Veterans Day can save immigrant soldiers years of waiting to become Americans.

The reasons immigrants join the military are as diverse as the countries of their birth.

Silva, 26, was drawn to the military in part by his father, who served in the Argentine military. Through his father's stories, Silva became intrigued by the discipline and hierarchy of the armed services.

"I really liked the way he made it sound," he said in a telephone call from Camp Victory in Baghdad. "It was very attractive to me."

He signed up for the U.S. Army in 11th grade at Western High in Davie but didn't join until January 2001, months before the terrorist attacks that rattled the country.

Now, after serving one tour of duty in Afghanistan, he's on his second deployment to Iraq, where he helps offer medical support for platoons. He considers himself a true-blue American: "I've lived in the U.S. for 13 years. It's definitely my country."

For Pratt, military life offered something more challenging than his job as a drugstore manager. Citizenship wasn't part of the original equation.

He enlisted in 2005 at 27, but only applied for citizenship in February of this year.

"It took them three months to get it done - that's pretty quick compared to the conventional way," he said.

Pratt left Haiti in the late 1990s and eventually settled in Pembroke Pines. He attended Broward Community College and Florida International University before he and his wife, Lymari, enlisted in the Army.

"I'm getting to close 30. You start to question a lot of things you've done so far," said Pratt. "Now I can look back and say I did that. I was part of the war on terror."

Sgt. Danil Ramirez, 21, moved to South Florida from Cuba with his family in 1998 and enlisted in the Army to find a focus after graduating from South Miami High.

"I wanted to prove to my parents that I could do better," Ramirez said by phone from Iraq. "I also wanted to be a cop, but I wasn't a citizen so that wasn't an option."

Now it is. Ramirez became a citizen on July 4 in Baghdad, also at Al Faw Palace.

He frequently calls and e-mails his wife, Jacqueline Ramirez, 18, at a Hialeah condo where she lives with her husband's family.

On a recent afternoon, as she talked about Ramirez, her phone rang. Her face lit up: "That's him."

After some small talk - he can't give his wife much detail about his work - they said goodbye.

"Me, too, babe," she said. "I love you a lot. Bye, mi amor."

And she blew him a long-distance kiss. MH
 

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