Immigration sponsorship by his adult children, who are US citizens, has also been ruled out for Canton due to his past voting. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, that\u2019s the thing that\u2019s really nailed me,\u201d Canton said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI carried myself as a United States citizen, not being one, that\u2019s the death knell for any chance of citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul Canton has spent three decades in the United States. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Canton is now calling on a bill to be passed through Congress that would allow the military to hold the responsibility for the immigration needs of its personnel. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a bill to be passed that allows the military to take care of the immigration needs of its members past, present and future \u2013 and their families,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have four years of active service, and they know everything about me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I get handed over to a different government agency that knows nothing about me. They get to make the ruling on yay or nay, whether they think I\u2019m good enough for citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul Canton enlisted in the US Marines on March 29, 1991. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Canton said there was \u201cnothing left\u201d in terms of options to allow him to stay, unless a bill was passed through Congress or he received presidential naturalisation. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, it just seems like I\u2019m hitting a brick wall,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt needs to change, but nobody\u2019s really willing to go out on a limb and do something about it. <\/p>\n
\u201cBest we can hope for, maybe I get a special bill in Congress, maybe the President goes ahead and naturalises me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he had members of Congress and Senators backing his case, including Congressman Randy Fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping Congressman Fine will be able to get in touch with [the President] and we can go ahead and get it moving.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Herald has approached the White House for comment on Canton\u2019s case, as well as various press offices for US President Donald Trump, but has not received a reply. <\/p>\n
In a statement supplied to Military.com, Fine said work was being done to determine any remaining avenues to grant Canton citizenship. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy office is aware of Mr Canton\u2019s situation, and we are working with our partners in the administration to determine what options may be available in light of the recent court decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will keep the constituent updated as we learn more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul Canton has lived in the US for more than three decades. His wife and two children are citizens. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Canton said he isn\u2019t the only veteran facing a similar reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I\u2019m not alone,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard horror stories of veterans and their family members going through immigration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was one Afghanistan veteran suffering from PTSD and when they picked him up, they deported him.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongress just needs to allow the military to take care of the immigration needs of their own members and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deportation would see Canton return to his birthplace in New Zealand, a decision he said would leave him starting with nothing but the shirt on his back, he said. <\/p>\n
When asked whether he felt he had fallen through the cracks of a larger system, Canton said it feels as though he had \u201cbeen shoved through a crack\u201d.<\/p>\n
Canton said his service cannot be taken away from him. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have earned the title of United States Marine and they\u2019re never going to take that from me,\u201d he told Yahoo News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Immigration sponsorship by his adult children, who are US citizens, has also been ruled out for Canton due…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[115,184263,8310,184264,5033,2178,84537,9881,3597,2883,917,9093,19635,647,117,111,43,139,69,90,2847,17357,2572,92648,312,45341,202,38291,61,2179,3040,102,1530,118],"class_list":["post-346094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-calls","tag-canton","tag-congress","tag-corps","tag-deportation","tag-donald","tag-either","tag-facing","tag-fix","tag-hope","tag-immigration","tag-lies","tag-marine","tag-military","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-only","tag-paul","tag-president","tag-reprieve","tag-says","tag-served","tag-seven","tag-stepping","tag-to","tag-trump","tag-us","tag-with","tag-years","tag-zealandborn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}