U.S. citizenship granted to ex-Army member who feared deporttion

COURT NEWS SERVICE

Yea Ji Sea will become an American citizen.

ARMY SPECIALIST Yea Ji Sea, who was honorably discharged earlier this month and faced the possibility of being deported, received word Friday (Aug. 17) that her application for U.S. citizenship has been approved.

Sea will achieve her long-sought dream on Aug. 24 when she will be sworn-in as a citizen of the country that she served for four years in the military.

"I love this country and was honored to serve it in the U.S. Army," Sea said upon receiving the notice of her citizenship ceremony. "I had felt like I was like I was an American since I was a child, growing up here. I had hoped for a long career in the Army, but I am so happy now that I will be a citizen."

She did not want to leave the Army but because her citizenship application took so long under a special program for non-citizens, she was forced to leave.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California sued the federal government because Sea’s citizenship application had not been acted upon in nearly two years. Even though her forced discharge was labeled as honorable because of her service record, Sea was vulnerable after leaving the Army to being arrested and deported.

At a hearing on Tuesday (8/14) in federal court in Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald ordered the government to explain why it could not rule on Sea's citizenship within three weeks.

"While it shouldn't have taken our lawsuit for this decorated veteran to get her U.S. citizenship, we are glad the government has made good on its promise under its enlistment program,” said ACLU SoCal staff attorney Sameer Ahmed.

Sea, 29, was brought to this country from South Korea by her parents in 1998 and grew up in the Los Angeles area. She enlisted in the Army in 2013 under the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program. It allows recruitment of non-citizens who have skills critical to the needs of the U.S. military, including physicians, nurses, and experts in certain foreign languages.

The program was ready-made for Sea — she is fluent in Korean and qualified as a healthcare specialist.

The MAVNI program required inductees to apply for U.S. citizenship upon entering the military. Sea willingly applied, but unbeknownst to her, the owner of the school through which she had previously received a student visa had been working with a corrupt immigration agent to create false forms for visa applications. (The school owner was later convicted and sent to prison).

During Sea's interview then about her citizenship application, she nervously stated that a date on a false form drawn up for her by the immigration agent was accurate though it was not. Because of this mistake, her initial citizenship application was denied. But she was permitted to reapply after demonstrating, for at least one year, "good moral character."

Sea did just that, reapplying on July 26, 2016, almost exactly two years ago. Until the ACLU lawsuit was filed, there seemed to be no action taken on the application, leaving her vulnerable to be deported by the country she served honorably.

ACLU SoCal staff attorney Sameer Ahmed, said he was "glad the government has made good on its promise under its enlistment program."

Ahmed said earlier this week that he believed Sea's case was part of a greater effort by the Trump administration to deny citizenship to soldiers.

Immigration attorneys know of more than 40 U.S. Army reservists and recruits who enlisted in the military with a promised path to citizenship and have been discharged or whose status has become questionable, jeopardizing their futures, according to the Associated Press.

Since Sea's discharge from the military, the Army has temporarily stopped discharging immigrant recruits, pending a review of the program.
_______________________________________________________________________________