[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 160 (Wednesday, December 14, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13572-S13573]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. MIKULSKI:
  S. 2097. A bill to assist members of the Armed Forces in obtaining 
United States citizenship, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
the Judiciary.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I am here today to talk about a bill I 
will be introducing that rights a wrong and corrects a terrible 
injustice. I am introducing legislation called the Kendell Frederick 
Citizenship Assistance Act of 2005. This is legislation was inspired by 
a young man from the State of Maryland, who was in the Army, had a 
green card, was serving this country, though not a citizen, and was 
killed while serving in Iraq. He was killed by a roadside bomb on his 
way to be fingerprinted, on his way to become a U.S. citizen. He died 
on his way to become a U.S. citizen because of the failed and flawed 
information he was given by our immigration system.
  He was a terrific young man, who came to this country when he was 
fifteen from Trinidad. He joined his mother here in the U.S. and wanted 
so much to be part of this country. He wanted to serve this country and 
so he joined the ROTC when he was in high school. In fact, Randallstown 
High School has one of the best high school ROTCs programs that 
Maryland has. After graduation, he then joined the Army and off he went 
to train to serve this country.
  He was killed by the botched bureaucracy of the U.S. Government, by 
their incompetence, by their indifference, by their ineptitude; and 
this is absolutely inexcusable. Every military death in Iraq is a 
tragedy, but this one did not need to happen. I am going to tell you a 
little bit about him and then tell you what happened.
  As I said, he graduated from high school and he decided to join the 
Army with hopes that he would go back to school. In the Army he was a 
generator mechanic assigned to a heavy combat battalion. His job was to 
keep that battalion running. All he wanted was to do a good job, help 
his buddies stay alive, stay alive himself, defend what we were doing 
in Iraq and, along the way, become an American citizen and come back 
home and resume his life. He had been trying to become an American 
citizen for a while. He started working on it when he joined the Army.
  Mr. President, because I know of your keen interest in national 
security, I understand that you know when you join the Army you are 
fingerprinted and a background check is run. We just don't let anybody 
join the United States Army. You can't get in if you are a drug dealer, 
if you have an extensive criminal record or if you would be a threat to 
the security of the United States. You can't get in if there is even a 
hint that you might be connected to a terrorist organization. So 
Kendell Frederick was accepted into the Army after all these security 
checks were run and his background was vetted. Then he sent in his 
citizenship application but, guess what, he checked the wrong box. What 
did that mean? Here he was, training for war, packing up to go to Iraq, 
saying goodbye to his mom, his brother and two sisters and in the 
middle of this he checked the wrong box saying that he was not in the 
military. So his application was derailed, not once but three different 
times.
  The first time was after his mother checked the correct box saying 
that Kendell was in the military. Immigration sent the application to 
the wrong office, not the one that handles military applications that 
is on a fast track but the general one where all the applications are 
all stacked up. Second, Immigration rejected the fingerprints that were 
sent from the military. There was no explanation. His mother did not 
know why the fingerprints had been rejected. He had sent in the 
paperwork from Iraq. As I said, Kendell had already been fingerprinted, 
had already had his background vetted when he joined the military. So 
here was a guy who had been fingerprinted and cleared to join the 
military. The Army had said, you are OK, Kendell. He had an FBI 
background check run. The FBI said you are OK, Kendell. The Army wants 
somebody like you. But when he tried to get through Immigration, they 
said no, the fingerprints he had taken when he joined the military and 
even the fingerprints he sent into immigration were not enough.
  Finally, when his mother called this 1-800 Immigration number--you 
try to call that number--she got no help. It is like trying to make a 
call from the Superdome in the middle of Katrina. You are not going to 
get help going to get the right answer. His mother called that number. 
They told his mother that he had to return from Baghdad and go to 
Baltimore to get his fingerprints. His mother got on the phone again, 
because he can't call from Baghdad--he is being shot at, he is trying 
to defend himself and the troops of the United States of America--so he 
was a little busy, couldn't afford to get a busy signal from 
Immigration.
  When his mother called and said, ``My boy is in Baghdad,'' 
Immigration at the 800 number told her, there was nothing they could 
do. They didn't even know their own rules. They didn't know their own 
system. They didn't know their own laws. Immigration was wrong. They 
gave his mother the wrong information.
  So here is Kendell, still keeping in touch, still trying to do his 
job, trying to get his fingerprints taken to become a U.S. citizen. 
Finally, there was an arrangement made. His staff sergeant came to his 
rescue and made arrangements for him to be fingerprinted at a nearby 
air base so he could complete this application. On October 19, with the 
help of his staff sergeant, he was traveling in a convoy to get his 
fingerprints. He didn't usually go in convoys, but that day he was on 
that convoy to get his fingerprints to become an American citizen--to 
compensate for the botched mistakes of Immigration--and on his way a 
roadside bomb killed him.
  They told his mother that immigration would give Kendell U.S. 
citizenship. They granted his citizenship a week after he died. He was 
buried at Arlington, as he should have been. He was trying to do the 
right thing, yet he was given the wrong information.
  As I said, his staff sergeant tried to help him, his mother tried to 
help him, but the system, the immigration system, failed him time and 
time again.
  When I called his mother--and I try to call all the families of our 
military from Maryland who die; some I reach, some I do not--I spoke to 
his mother. She said to me that she did not want another mother to go 
through what she went through, to go through what her son went through. 
Service members and their moms and dads should not be worrying about 
what box to check, where the fingerprints are, et cetera. She said 
Immigration should know their own rules. When we explained to her the 
rules of Immigration, that he should have been fast tracked, that these 
fingerprints should have been OK, that he did not have to pay a $400 
fee, she said, ``Nobody told me that.'' Every time I called, I got 
different information.

  I am introducing legislation today to prevent this from happening 
again. His mother asked me to introduce legislation, and she asked me 
to call it the

[[Page S13573]]

Kendell Frederick law. I am doing that today, and over in the House 
Congressman Elijah Cummings is doing the same thing. We made this 
promise when we stood in the church, a small, humble church in an 
African-American community in Baltimore. We made this pledge to his 
mother that we would do this for her and we are here today to do just 
that.
  The legislation I am introducing today makes it easier for military 
servicemembers to become citizens. The provisions cut through the 
redtape. It requires Immigration to use the fingerprints the military 
takes when the person enlists in the military.
  It requires the creation of a military citizen advocate to inform the 
servicemembers about the citizenship process and help with the 
application.
  It also means they won't leave boot camp unless they are absolutely 
apprised of all of the rules and all of the regulations about how to 
apply to become a U.S. citizen.
  The very process they have to go through to join the military, 
fingerprinting and FBI background check, should be good enough. Because 
you see, deep down inside, we believe that if you are good enough to 
fight for this country, you are good enough to become a citizen of this 
country.
  There is a pileup of 3,000 people with green cards fighting in our 
military today who have applied to become American citizens. You should 
not have to be standing in that kind of line. We are not saying let 
anyone become a U.S. citizen, but these are men and women who joined 
the military and fighting for this country. They have a green card, 
they have been fingerprinted, and they have passed an FBI check. Why do 
they have to go through it all over again?
  We are passing a law that would stop this needless bureaucracy, and 
we are establishing a special 800 number for our military and their 
families.
  We talk a lot about standing up for our troops, and we certainly 
should stand up for our troops. This means we should stand up for them 
and enable them to follow their dreams. They are certainly standing up 
for us.
  Today, we introduced the Kendell Frederick bill to make sure that 
anyone in the military who wants to be a U.S. citizen, who has a green 
card, and who passed the fingerprint checks will be able to do so 
quickly and easily. If they are willing to fight for America and die 
for America, they should be able to become an American citizen.
  I will be circulating a ``Dear Colleague'' to my colleagues to join 
it. I hope we can pass this legislation on a bipartisan basis so that 
as men and women such as Kendell Frederick fight for freedom, we ensure 
that their memory is not in vain.
  I thank the Chair.
                                 ______