WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) – A rule preventing non-citizens from joining the American Gold Star Mothers Inc. after they lose a son or daughter in the U.S. armed forces could eventually be changed, the incoming president said Friday after the group received complaints over an immigrant woman who was shut out.

“The charter was written 77 years ago and we’re in the next generation, I realize that,” said Judith Young of Moorestown, N.J., who becomes president next month. “Things have changed, times have changed, people have changed.”

The Washington-based organization of about 1,200 mothers came under criticism after Ligaya Lagman, a Filipino whose son was killed last year in Afghanistan, was barred from joining because she is not an American citizen. She is a legal resident and has lived in the U.S. more than 20 years.

Some politicians have called for the group to change its rules immediately.

Gov. George Pataki wrote to current president Ann Herd on Friday, saying the group should “review its policies on membership in the interest of fairness and in recognition of the fact that service in defense of American freedom should be the paramount factor in determining eligibility.”

Young said the group’s office has been overwhelmed with critical messages, some of them vulgar.

But Young said the change must be proposed in an amendment from a mother or chapter, then be voted on by all members. “It’s not something you just Wite-Out or change overnight,” she said.

Lagman’s application was initiated by Ben Spadaro, a veteran from Yonkers, who said he learned about the group’s citizenship rules while working on a national cemetery committee of the Veterans Administration. He said Lagman’s mother should be able to join the group because her son was a citizen and has been buried with full honors.

“We decided to tell the absolute truth on the application,” he said. “We put down, “I am not an American citizen.’ It was a ploy to get them to reject her, and then we said they should change the rules.”

But the organization’s 12-member executive board voted against any change.

“There’s nothing we can do because that’s what our organization says: You have to be an American citizen,” Herd said Thursday. “We can’t go changing the rules every time the wind blows.”

Young said that the national board did not specifically vote on Lagman’s application, but rather, “We only voted not to make an exception to the rule we already have as to citizenship.”

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