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Quantico lance corporal becomes citizen

When an oath of citizenship ceremony was held Monday on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Lance Cpl. Yvon Francois was among those raising his right hand.

A personnel clerk at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., Francois was born and raised in Cite Soleil in Port Au Prince, Haiti, and came to the U.S. when he was 9. He joined the Army National Guard in 2000 at 17 “thinking it would allow me time for school,” he said.

But he had joined the infantry and a year later, after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the deployments began and school took a back seat.

He chose to switch to the Marine Corps last year so he could “stay in garrison and go to school” for a while. Choosing to apply for U.S. citizenship, Francois said, “was a tough decision.”

“I thought I would go back to Haiti one day and make a difference, which I still hope to do,” he said. By obtaining his U.S. citizenship, he will be able to get a military security clearance and be eligible for better jobs.

Francois’s lifelong role model, Jean Dominque, a Haitian journalist who championed democracy and human rights for Haiti’s impoverished masses, was gunned down in April 2000 in front his radio station.

Francois, 24, sees himself picking up where Dominique left off, perhaps as a political adviser.

“He would say to the country people, ‘These are your rights, this is what you’re able to do, this is why you’re voting,’” said Francois, who is still pursuing a college degree in business.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has naturalized more than 40,000 service members since Sept. 11, 2001. About 20,000 non-U.S. citizens are serving in the armed forces.

In addition to Francois, those being naturalized Monday were from Bolivia, China, El Salvador, England, Ethiopia, France, Honduras, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela, and Vietnam, according to a USCIS statement.