three_sixty
Full Member
Posts: 386
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« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2006, 09:43:42 PM » |
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"The presence of immigrants in the military was last discussed at length in the press during the weeks following the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Chicago Tribune, US News and World Report, and other leading news sources featured articles and editorials drawing attention to the patriotism of immigrants who volunteered to kill and die for a country not fully their own. But little has been written since then.
This, coupled with the increased attention given to immigrants and immigration, has led us at CPF to consider anew the role of immigrants, and especially non-citizens, in the US Armed Forces.
Currently, there are about 37,000 non-citizens in the US military, with more than 25,000 of these on active duty, according to figures provided by the Department of Defense at the time of writing. Of these, the great majority are from Latin America, the Caribbean, and East Asia.
Foreigners in the armed forces receive a number of benefits, including education grants, that are not normally available to foreign citizens living in the US. But the greatest benefit the military offers foreigners is a quick road to citizenship. Since 9/11, any non-citizen who joins the US military is immediately eligible to apply for citizenship. The five-year waiting period normally applied to permanent legal resident aliens (i.e., green card holders) is waived.
Because foreigners are not able to get security clearance, however, they are left with few options within the military; thus the majority of non-citizens end up serving in higher-risk infantry duty. This trend, along with the new citizenship policy, has led some to accuse the military of recruiting foreigners to do America’s dirty work. The accusations are given some credibility by the fact that in late 2003, the Canadian government had to politely ask the US military to stop recruiting within its borders. Recruiters had been going to Indian reservations in Canada to entice green card holders there to join the Army (under a 19th century treaty, members of certain tribes are considered joint permanent residents of Canada and the US). And though the US military has since disavowed the practice of recruiting on foreign soil, there are some who believe the practice continues, especially in Mexican border towns.
One such person is Camilo Mejia, an Iraq War veteran and Costa Rican native who made headlines in 2004 by refusing to return to Iraq following a two-week leave in the US, and to whom CPF gave the St. Marcellus Award that same year. Mejia, who travels the country speaking out against the war, furthermore believes that recruiters also target undocumented immigrants within the US itself. “The military has always preyed on the poor,” he said. “It’s just easier for them to prey on someone who’s not only poor but also undocumented.”
There are some, especially in the Latino community, who believe that such practices amount to racism, but Mejia disagrees. “They're a measure of just how desperate they are [for new recruits],” he said, “Not a measure of how much they want Latinos to die on the frontlines.”
Yet regardless of whether or not such recruiting practices, if they do exist, are racist, they do not seem to be working. From 2001 to 2004, the most recent time period for which statistics were readily available, enlistment of immigrants dropped by 20%, compared to a drop of 12% for US citizens. For whatever reason, immigrants are less likely to join the military than they were before September 11, 2001."
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