Becoming an American Citizen, the Hardest Way

Este joven perdió su vida tratando de ser ciudadano de EU, qué pérdida.
http://bibdaily.com/pdfs/Becoming%20an%20American%20Citizen,%20the%20Hardest%20Way%20-%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
September 18, 2007
NYC
Becoming an American Citizen, the Hardest Way
By CLYDE HABERMAN
On an August day when some Iraqi’s homemade bomb tore through him, Cpl. Juan Mariel Alcántara became
an American. He never got to appreciate the honor.
A little-discussed detail of this war is that some of those fighting in it as soldiers of the United States are not
American citizens. Over all, about 21,000 noncitizens are serving in this country’s armed forces, the Defense
Department says.
Until death claimed him on Aug. 6, one of them was Corporal Alcántara of the United States Army.
He did not live long enough to acquire a richly textured biography. He was born in the Dominican Republic,
reared in Washington Heights. He was 22 when the bomb — an improvised explosive device, in
military-speak — ended his life and the lives of three fellow soldiers from the Second Infantry Division while
they searched a house in Baquba, north of Baghdad.