WASHINGTON, D.C. ? At an event linking the most sensitive domestic and foreign policy issues currently before the White House – immigration and the war in Iraq – President Bush on Monday attended a ceremony at which three wounded soldiers were given U.S. citizenship.

“If somebody is willing to risk their life for our country, they ought to be full participants in our country,” Bush said at a ceremony at Walter Reed Army Medical Center before Emilio Gonzalez, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, administered the citizenship oath to the three men who suffered severe wounds in Iraq.

Under an executive order Bush signed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. military personnel who are not citizens are eligible for immediate naturalization through active duty service under certain conditions during periods of military hostilities.