Soldiers' son has no citizenship
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| Mon, 04-12-2004 - 10:23am |
Apr. 12 - FORT LEWIS -- Jose Elijah "JJ" Mendoza's dad is serving in Iraq. His mom is an Army veteran living in government housing at Fort Lewis.
Yet at 14 months old, this son of American soldiers is a baby without a country.

Jose "JJ" Mendoza, 14 months old, lives with his mother, Mary, at Fort Lewis while his father, Jose, fights in Iraq. The Mendozas have waged a yearlong battle to gain U.S. citizenship for their son in a case that became complicated when their Army hospital was closed for repairs, resulting in birth at a German facility. Karen Ducey / Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The toddler's mom and dad, Jose Pedro, 25, and Mary, 21, are U.S. citizens. Dad is from El Paso, Texas; Mom is from Florida. Jose Elijah was born Feb. 27, 2003, while both served together in the Army near Heidelberg, Germany.
Normally, JJ would have received an official U.S. State Department "record of birth abroad" from the U.S. Consulate or through a designated military official.
But instead, circumstance, red tape and classic Catch-22s conspired to leave the tiny "Army brat" a non-citizen of the nation his parents serve.
"They (the government) sent us overseas and stationed us there as soldiers, but have this messed-up system that I can't understand anymore," Mary Mendoza says as she clutches evidence of her war with bureaucracy, a batch of documents compiled in the yearlong quest to gain U.S. citizenship for her son.
Government and military officials have few answers regarding the case.
A State Department official said Friday that the Pentagon handles issues involving military personnel and dependents overseas. The Defense Department notes that the State Department runs the consular offices.
In the last year, the Mendozas have sought help but gotten none from bureaucrats across the spectrum.
"Even though he's technically an American, we got so desperate we tried to go through the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration for foreign-born people, but they told us we might be waiting a year," Mary Mendoza said. "We asked the (Army) Judge Advocate General's Office for legal advice, but an adviser there told us to go to the U.S. Consulate in Seattle.
"That's crazy. U.S. consulates are overseas, not in the U.S.," she said.
More than one office of a U.S. politician they contacted told them to put their problem in writing and hung up.
Here it is:
They met while both served in the Army in Germany and married in May 2001. Both work in communications. Mary was a multichannel systems operator, setting up networks and antennae for her corps from the Army's Cambrai-Fritsch Casern, an old German army post, in Darmstadt.
When Mary became pregnant with JJ, the couple reckoned that, like other military families stationed overseas, the government would care for them. They'd go to the Army hospital in Heidelberg, equipped to handle the birth and grease the citizenship papers.
Instead, the first loop in a knot of red tape was tied the day Jose Elijah came into the world.
"When I went into labor that morning, Jose drove me to Heidelberg, but we were turned away after learning the operating room was closed down for construction," Mary recalls.
"We were sent to a German civilian hospital, Universitadts Frauen Klinik, about 20 minutes away. The Army doesn't consider being pregnant an emergency, so I wasn't transferred by ambulance, so there was no one from the military with us. It took over 20 minutes for my husband to find that hospital, driving down cobblestone roads while I'm in labor," she said with a reflective wince.
The couple arrived at the German clinic around 9 a.m. to find no one who spoke English. Awkward, anxious moments passed before a translator was found. Realizing it was an emergency, the staff rushed Mary and Jose inside. Jose Elijah was delivered into the world at 7:30 p.m.
Things might have turned out differently except that the Iraq war was also about to be born.
Two days after JJ's birth, his dad was hastily ordered to the Middle East. With only two days' notice, Jose Mendoza scarcely had time to pack and kiss his wife and firstborn goodbye before joining the 32nd Signal Battalion. He left for Kuwait on March 3, 2003. The war began 16 days later.

Mendoza
While worried about her husband in the war zone, Mary, whose wispy voice obscures her tenacity, began her own fight -- with bureaucracy.
The key to recognizing JJ's citizenship was a U.S. State Department "report of birth abroad," a birth certificate from the U.S. Consulate issued to children of U.S. citizens born overseas.
Had JJ been born at the Army hospital, the certificate would have been easily acquired. It was needed before JJ could be issued a Social Security card and, more importantly, the U.S. passport his mom counted upon to return with him to the United States that fall. That's when her three-year enlistment was up.
But because JJ's mom and dad had been sent to the German civilian hospital, no U.S. birth certificate was in the works. The couple went to the Army personnel battalion service, which acquires the certificates from the U.S. consul for soldiers and dependents.
But Mary learned that the government requirements were that they appear in person, together.
"Consular Report of Birth Abroad must be executed in person," read the rule on one Web site printout Mary saved.
That was impossible. Spc. Jose Pedro Mendoza was by now in Iraq, having been sent there with no time to assign things such as power of attorney.
Germany, meanwhile, claimed the infant as one of its own. JJ received a German birth certificate last April at Mary's request. Germany also made him a citizen of the world, issuing an international birth certificate at the same time.
Neither was good enough to pass U.S. muster.
"I had all the proof my husband and I were American citizens -- marriage licenses, Social Security cards, passports -- but because my husband wasn't there in person, we couldn't get our son a passport," Mary recalls.
Mary found the only way she could get her son home without a passport was to do so while she remained in the military through a narrow loophole.
Because her son had a military identification card and was mentioned in her discharge orders, he could accompany her. Mary returned to her homeland in "on leave" status before obtaining her honorable discharge in September.
She counted on rectifying the matter while staying with her mom in New York, taking some classes and waiting for her husband to return later in the fall.
Jose had put in for a transfer from the 32nd Signal Battalion to the 29th Signal Battalion at Fort Lewis, figuring it would be a nice duty station for his family after the stresses they endured while he served in Iraq. The family was reunited at Fort Lewis in January.
And shortly afterward, the Mendozas learned Jose's new unit, the 29th, was being sent to Iraq to replace his old unit, the 32nd.
"What it means is our son will be 2 years old before his father comes home next January, before they can finally know each other," said Mary, who has no family or other connections here.
Jose Mendoza left with his unit three weeks ago. Jose and Mary used their weeks together to try to gain citizenship for their son.
They contacted everyone from Army legal advisers to a U.S. senator's office, but got nowhere.
In the meantime, the Mendoza family matriarch, JJ's great-grandma, died in Juarez, Mexico. The family couldn't attend the funeral. It risked trapping JJ in Mexico with no U.S. passport to return.
Now the Mendozas believe the best way to win recognition from their homeland for their son is by leaving it.
"When my husband returns next January, we might head up to Vancouver, B.C., to the U.S. Consulate there and apply for the 'record of birth abroad,' " Mary said.
It can be costly to stay indefinitely in a motel across the border on an Army enlisted man's pay. The plan is desperate and a little nutty, she admits, but worth the risk.
And, Mary says, worth it to be an American.
P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or mikebarber@seattlepi.com
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>"Germany, meanwhile, claimed the infant as one of its own. JJ received a German birth certificate last April at Mary's request. Germany also made him a citizen of the world, issuing an international birth certificate at the same time.
Neither was good enough to pass U.S. muster."< LOL Figures, maybe they think he's a terrorist.
Just amazing.
If both parents are US Citizens, then the child should automatically obtain US citizenship if applied for, unless I am missing something.
My neighbor had this, as his father and mother lived in Sweeden when he was born, and they were both US citizens. They applied for his US citizenship, which was granted, and when he was 18 he applied for, and received his dual citizenship in Sweeden.