TAMPA, Fla. — "Katie your reporting is very eye-opening, and it is very disturbing. I had no idea this was happening,” said U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., in response to our recent article on Florida veteran Paul Canton.
Canton is a former U.S. Marine who served America honorably during the first Gulf War in the 1990s. But his personal quest to become a legal U.S. citizen has been a losing battle.
"To serve in the Marine Corps for eight years and to be left high and dry by the United States of America that he was brave enough to defend, he should be treated with like royalty in this country," said Castor after watching our recent story on Canton’s citizenship struggle.
We first introduced you to Canton back in July when the father of two, who was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, shared with us how he was recruited into the U.S. Marines in the early ’90s under what he calls false promises.
"I was told if I got an honorable discharge, then I would get citizenship at the end of my tour automatically. When I got out, I assumed I had citizenship," he told us over the summer from his home near Ocala, Florida.
However, several years ago, during a trip to renew his Florida driver's license, Canton learned he wasn’t legally here in the United States. He’s been fighting for citizenship status ever since. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) denied his application multiple times, including on appeal.
In the denial letters he showed us, USCIS states that while Canton enlisted during a "period of hostility," he didn’t become active duty until after that period of hostility ended, which makes him ineligible for citizenship as a foreign veteran.
Canton’s attorney, Elizabeth Ricci, has taken on Canton's case pro bono. Ricci believes the government is interpreting the law too narrowly since Canton had no control over when he was called for active duty.
Ricci also said Canton should never have been recruited into the military because his visa had expired when he was recruited. As a result of his service to America, Canton lost his citizenship in Australia and New Zealand, leaving him essentially "stateless."
"He served our country. This is not fair," Ricci told us in July.
Last year, Canton and Ricci filed a case in federal court, hoping the courts would rule in his favor. But in an order filed earlier this month, U.S. Magistrate Judge Embry Kidd dismissed two of the three charges Canton brought against USCIS, citing, in part, their failure to establish the Courts had “subject matter jurisdiction to review USCIS' denial of his naturalization applications.”
Castor believes Canton's case is another example of the nation's broken immigration system.
"If he had served and was honorably discharged, there should be no fight from the U.S. government at this point when he goes and applies for citizenship as long as he has dotted the i's, crossed the t's, and stayed out of trouble," she said. "We shouldn't waste resources fighting that. We should be making sure that he is a productive US citizen as his service entitles him to."
Castor also expressed concerns after we found what’s happening to Canton could be impacting hundreds, possibly even thousands, of foreign veterans who have also been recruited to serve in America's armed forces.
Castor is now looking at supporting legislation reintroduced last year by U.S. Sen. and Army veteran Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. The legislation, known as the Veterans Visa and Protection Act, HOPE Act, and I-VETS Act, would prevent immigrant Veterans from being deported if they are not violent offenders and provide them with a pathway to citizenship through their military service.
“There has to be a way to make sure that military veterans who served the U.S. and have earned their citizenship get that citizenship without the bureaucratic mess that he's having to go through,” she said.
