Local Marine Becomes U.S. Citizen in Historic Ceremony

A United States Marine who is a native of Columbia has been sworn in as a U.S. citizen in Libya, in what is thought to be the first such ceremony performed in that country since at least World War II.

Sgt. Jeison Mendoza, a resident of Port Jefferson, came to the United States while in grade school. On June 4, he took the oath of citizenship in the cockpit of a KC-130J Super Hercules in Tripoli, Libya.

"It feels like I reached one of the biggest goals of my life. I wanted to feel and become a proud American,” Mendoza said in a report published by DVIDS, a military news service.

Mendoza serves as a mortarman with the Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Africa. He said he knew as young as age 12 that he wanted to become a marine "because I wanted to feel like a hero and make my mother proud."

"She was the one that brought me here when I was little and she wanted something better for me; becoming a U.S. citizen has opened more paths in my life,” Mendoza said.

The ceremony was performed by John Lafferty, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services district director for Africa. For Lafferty, who has served the USCIS for 18 years, it was his final one.

“This ceremony on Libyan soil was an event that I will always remember and cherish," Lafferty said. "To be able to provide some service to this young man, who has come to Libya to protect his fellow Americans, even though he could not yet call himself a U.S. citizen, was truly humbling,”