{"id":39041,"date":"2018-07-20T01:07:27","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T01:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/07\/20\/this-former-iraqi-interpreter-turned-us-soldier-says-agency-is-blocking-his-path-to-citizenship\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:18:08","slug":"this-former-iraqi-interpreter-turned-us-soldier-says-agency-is-blocking-his-path-to-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/07\/20\/this-former-iraqi-interpreter-turned-us-soldier-says-agency-is-blocking-his-path-to-citizenship\/","title":{"rendered":"This former Iraqi interpreter turned US soldier says agency is blocking his path to citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Haeder Al Anbki was all set to become a U.S. citizen last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former interpreter for U.S. forces in Iraq, who had been shot and stabbed during his service, was at a June 2017 naturalization ceremony in Fort Benning, Georgia, for 20 immigrant recruits<\/a> when he was stopped and told he wouldn\u2019t be participating. No explanation was given other than \u201cthere was a problem in the system,\u201d according to a lawsuit he filed last month in the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 36-year-old Al Anbki says in the lawsuit that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was obligated to complete his citizenship application but instead was applying a different set of rules under a program known as the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program, which opponents say targets applicants from majority-Muslim countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Everybody was looking at me and they were like, ‘What’s going on?'” Al Anbki said Wednesday in a telephone interview from Camp Blanding in Jacksonville, where he was training with his Florida National Guard unit. “It was frustrating for me. Like, why? Of the 20 soldiers there, I’m the only one who got held.”<\/p>\n\n\n\t