Immigration Issues...

This is a photo of a man I have been privileged enough to have met and served with in my life. He is SPC Amare and he is a soldier in the US Army. He is also an Iraqi that has lived in the US Since 1993. The above photo (CLICK ON TO ENLARGE) shows him taking the time to give a local girl a stuffed animal while we stopped on the road in Eastern Baghdad after some a**holes tried to grenade us from an overpass. He is brave to a fault. I have personally seen him save and protect many people in Iraq.

His problem you ask? He hasn't gotten his citizenship as an American. Neither the Army nor his own US Senator has a reason for his final swearing in being delayed. He just volunteered and returned to Iraq for the second time. He didn't need to but interpreters are hard to find that speak the Iraqi dialect of Arabic. He went back without hesitation.

Whenever I want to feel like "the system" has shorted me for something, I just need to think about this man who continues to try to effect change at the risk of losing his life over and over with no regret. He called me before he left 3 days ago and I had to wipe away a few tears as I thought on him going back because I knew he would be on lots of missions and was the kind of guy who would run toward an explosion, not away. He is truly a defender of America without the benefit of it's citizenship.