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Santa Barbara Congressman Pushing Effort To Protect Citizenship Reward For Those In Military

A Santa Barbara congressman is helping to lead a bipartisan effort to remove restrictions from members of the U.S. military seeking citizenship.

The United State has allowed non-citizens to serve in the military and receive expedited naturalized citizenship since World War II.  But in 2017, the Department of Defense imposed a new policy which imposed a minimum service requirement before someone could become eligible for citizenship.

A lawsuit led to a federal judge striking down the Defense Department action.

The bipartisan effort led by Democratic Congressman Salud Carbajal of Santa Barbara and Republican Congressman Don Bacon of Nebraska calls for the government to completely drop the controversial new policy.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.