Marshallese living in the Springdale area are learning that their special visa-free status has a downside: It adds hurdles should they seek a path to U.S. citizenship.
At a citizenship drive held last month by immigration lawyers, 33 Marshallese applied and 27 were identified who would be eligible to proceed, a representative of the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese told an advocacy group Wednesday.
Rudolf Mejbon, the coalition’s secretary, told the Gaps in Services to Marshallese Task Force that while a special agreement between theisland nation and the United States doesn’t include pathways to citizenship, it also doesn’t contain any outright barriers.
Marshall islanders who would otherwise meet one of a handful of eligibility criteria must first apply for legal permanent residency, more commonly known as a green card, so they can become an immigrant, Mejbon told the group. That’s because under the Compact of Free Association between the U.S. and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the status of Marshallese who come to live and work without need for a visa is that of “non-immigrant migrants,”not immigrants, U.S. officials have said previously.
“Green card is the same as a permanent resident, and we are not permanent residents,” said Carmen Chong Gum, consul general for the Republic of the Marshall Islands Consulate in Springdale, in addressing the task force.
Springdale is home to the consulate because most of Arkansas’ Marshallese population is concentrated there.
The 2010 U.S. Census counted 4,324 Marshallese living in Arkansas, making the state second in the United States to Hawaii, which counted about 7,400 Marshallese.
Though Mejbon, Chong Gum and a representative of Legal Aid of Arkansas told the task force more about the citizenship pathways, many in the group said they were confused about the details and had many unanswered questions.
One of the task force members, Sandy Prince, said that if the American immigration process was difficult for educated English-speakers to understand, how must it be for Marshallese residents unfamiliar with American culture or the language?
“If you have a permanent visa status, you’re not an immigrant - right?” Prince asked.
“Legal permanent visa status is immigrant status,” said Casey Bryant, the Legal Aid lawyer.
She added that while Legal Aid worked with a Springdale law firm, Ferner and Benham Attorneys At Law, on the Aug. 11 citizenship drive, the law firm is more a specialist in immigration law.
Task-force members said it would be a good idea to invite the firm’s partners, Laura Ferner and Kedron Benham, to a future meeting to explain the process further.
In an interview Thursday, Benham said “screening process” would be the best description for the August citizenship drive.
“It’s not usually a drive to immediate citizenship - it’s more about putting them on a path to citizenship,” he said.
Benham, whose firm offered its services without charge for clients identifiedduring the August drive, said about half of them will likely qualify for legal permanent residency in about a year.
The rest could take longer, he said. Depending on the person’s circumstances, the wait could be a decade or longer, he said.
The firm plans another drive in February.
Most Marshallese must go through the legal permanent residency pathway, which almost always involves having a relative petition on their behalf, he said. Each type of petition has its own waiting list.
Benham said a Marshallese person seeking U.S. citizenship must meet one of four criteria:
Be married to a U.S. citizen;
Have served in the U.S. armed forces;
Have a U.S. citizen child who is 21 years or older (which Mejbon said is becoming more common since any child born on U.S. soil automatically is a U.S. citizen);
Have a U.S. citizen sibling.
There is a fifth significant factor that could qualify the Marshallese, Benham said. A federal law allowing victims of “a certain crime” to apply for a “non-immigrant visa and work permit for four years to rebuild their lives” can open the door as well.That’s because, after the third year and before the end of the fourth year, that person could apply for permanent residency status.
Patrick Kira and Tommy Laibwij, both Marshallese and living in Springdale, wondered after Wednesday’s task force meeting if the nuclear weapons testing the United States conducted in the Marshall Islands after World War II, whichamounted to more than 65 nuclear bombings over a period of years, would qualify as a “certain crime.”
Benham has typically seen the “certain crime” provision triggered by major crimes against persons, such as rape or serious beatings, and said police or prosecutors decide case by case which crimes qualify.
But he said their question raised an interesting point, Benham said.
“That’s a really complex question, and it calls into question, what is a crime, and what is consent?” Benham said.
“The Marshallese did consent to the testing,” he said, though he doesn’t know if they were properly informed of what they were consenting to in advance.
During Marshallese screening in the past, Benham said, the topic of crimes has come up in the context of the nuclear testing.
“Almost all of them say, well, my family used to live on an island, and my auntie or my grandmother got radiation sickness, or they got cancer and I think it’s from the bombing,” he said.
“They ask the question: Is that a crime? And I’ll say, I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem right, does it?”
Benham said the nuclear testing is the reason his firm decided to offer their services.
“They have lots of problems with radiation sickness to this day,” he said. “Many of them can’t go back to their islands. It’s too dangerous.”
The benefits of U.S. citizenship would give Marshallese the right to vote, Benham said. They could also seek elected office for positions that don’t require the officeholder be U.S.-born.
Citizenship could also open the door for the Marshallese to qualify for Medicaid, provided they were income-eligible and met other criteria, said Amy Webb, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
But she noted the Marshallese applicant could qualify for Medicaid while waiting for citizenship because the pathway itself allows this.
“For Medicaid, a person must be in a legal ‘alien status,’ i.e., a permanent legal resident, refugee or asylee,” Webb said.
There are two exceptions,she said. “The unborn child program, which provides prenatal care for the child that will be a U.S. citizen at birth, or emergency care in life-threatening situations.”
In all cases, Webb said, the person “must meet all other Medicaid eligibility requirements, such as income.”
Benham said that while the intent of the compact is for Marshallese to live andwork in the U.S. without becoming U.S. citizens, the compact doesn’t try to stop them either. They simply have to remove themselves from the compact provisions, by becoming immigrants, to get on the citizenship pathway.
In doing so, they can retain Marshallese citizenship and have dual citizenship in both countries, he said.
Kira, who works as a tax preparer, said that in looking at the list of pathways he has a lot of other questions. But it seems unlikely he could qualify through any of them.
“My understanding is there is no way I can be a citizen,” he said, noting he’s not in the military and that his child is much younger than 21 years old.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 13 on 09/30/2012