Man risks life for country not his own
Published: Feb 8, 2010 7:00 am By: DAVID ASHENFELTER"Naji Chammout says the U.S. government trusts him enough to translate for top military commanders in Iraq, but not enough to become a U.S. citizen.
"I've waited and waited and waited since 2002 for them to approve my citizenship request, and it's never come," said Chammout, 42, of Dearborn.
He and his lawyer, George Mann of Farmington Hills, said Chammout has spent $20,000 in application fees, legal charges and travel expenses on a request that should have cost no more than $1,500 and taken less than a year to approve.
They said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, won't tell them why Chammout's citizenship has been delayed, though they suspect it may be because he is Lebanese and Muslim."
Click here for more of this US immigration news update.