Deportation Awaits US Army Muslim Hero

"I do not think I deserve to get deported after serving honorably during a time of war!" Sergeant paratrooper Hicham Benkabbou wrote in an email obtained by the paper.

Benkabbou, 28, has been served with an order to stand trial for deportation as soon as he arrives in the US because of alleged irregularities in his immigration papers.

The Moroccan-born soldier immigrated to the US in 1987, and was granted permanent residency four years ago.

When he applied to become a naturalized US citizen in 2005 — he was already serving in the army by that time — officials at the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) initiated a deportation case against him because he had not registered his marriage from a US citizen.

They alleged that the marriage had been arranged fraudulently only to get him into the US. Benkabbou denies this.

Normally, a non-US citizen who obtains residency must wait five years before beginning the paperwork for US citizenship. In the armed forces that wait had been cut to three years.

But under a decree signed by President George W. Bush in 2003, a soldier with US residency can request US citizenship starting his first day on active duty.

"Muslim Terrorist"

Benkabbou's defense team dismissed Benkabbou's case as racially motivated.

"There is no question that Arab-Americans are given a totally different treatment," lawyer Paul Ford told The Guardian.

Ford says the Immigration Enforcement Agency (ICE) has charged that his client hail from a "terrorist" country.

"In court, ICE lawyers called Morocco a terrorist country, which I found astonishing," he said.

Immigration officials are advised against pressing to deport acting military personnel unless they have been involved in drug trafficking, crimes against children or violence, or unless they pose a danger to the public.

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