COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Youth of Color
Bill Offers U.S. Citizenship for Military Service
MIRIAM JORDAN, The Wall Street journal
September 21, 2007
Backers
of legislation that could help hundreds of thousands of young illegal
immigrants become citizens are trying to overcome political opposition
by emphasizing the bill's potential to help the U.S. military meet
war-time personnel needs.
The military has seemed receptive, but some Hispanic groups have
expressed concern that the bill is a ploy to pull young Latin Americans
into combat situations for which they wouldn't otherwise have
volunteered.
• The Push: Some senators are trying to revive the Dream
Act, which would put hundreds of thousands of mainly Hispanic
high-school graduates here illegally on the path to citizenship.
• The Strategy: Senators are calling attention to a
provision that would enable the youth to legalize their status by
enlisting in the military.
• Coming Soon: Sen. Dick Durbin will try to attach the Dream Act to the annual defense-authorization bill.
Months after the collapse of a broad immigration overhaul, Senate
Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D. Ill.) plans to offer by next week a
smaller measure that could give 360,000 illegal immigrants with
high-school degrees a path to citizenship. The Development, Relief and
Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the Dream Act, is known for
seeking to do that through education, by giving undocumented immigrants
a temporary window to complete two years of college -- after which they
would qualify for legal status.
The proposal has a lesser-known component that would offer the same
opportunity to undocumented immigrants with a high-school education who
enroll in the military. Military experts say the Dream Act would
significantly increase the pool of qualified recruits in the Hispanic
population, which comprises the majority of illegal immigrants and
which surveys indicate has a higher propensity to enlist than any other
group. Although it is believed that some illegal immigrants serve in
the armed forces, they aren't officially allowed to enlist.
"It would be tremendously beneficial to the military," says Margaret
Stock, a West Point professor who studies immigrants in the military.
"It gives the opportunity to enlist hundreds of thousands of
high-quality people. They will be encouraged to join the U.S. military."
Ms. Stock said Dream Act candidates are especially attractive because
they aren't school dropouts, boast a clean record and will have been
fully vetted by the Department of Homeland Security "before even coming
to the recruiter's door."
A 2005 study by the Rand Corp. on military enlistment of Hispanic youth
found they are underrepresented in the armed forces despite their
interest because they often don't meet some standards at the same rate
as other groups, such as graduating from high school. "The military
would love to recruit more qualified noncitizens," says Beth Asch, a
Rand economist who specializes in military manpower. "This is a
potentially very recruitable group."
On the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Durbin said the Dream Act would help solve the "recruitment crisis we face today."
Under the Dream Act, he said, "tens of thousands of well-qualified
potential recruits would become eligible for military service for the
first time. They are eager to serve in the armed services, and under
the Dream Act, they would have a very strong incentive to enlist
because it would give them a path to permanent legal status."
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had
been briefed on the bill. Declining to comment on the proposed
legislation, the spokesman said, "We would never want to deny any
qualified person the opportunity to serve our nation."
About 750,000 illegal immigrants, ages 5 to 18, live in the U.S.,
according to the National Immigration Law Center, a Washington advocacy
group. Each year, about 65,000 illegal immigrants graduate from high
school. Because of their illegal status, these students don't qualify
for federal-and-state grants and loans or work-study programs. Only one
out of 20 undocumented high-school seniors ends up attending college.
The bill would give temporary residency for six years to high-school
graduates who lived in the U.S. continuously for five years and arrived
here by age 15. During these six years, youngsters who attended college
for two years or served at least two years in the military would be
eligible for citizenship.
Because the bill boasts bipartisan support, it has a chance of passing
if its sponsors succeed in attaching it to the defense-authorization
bill. Anti-illegal immigrant activists and some Republican lawmakers
who deem the Dream Act to be tantamount to amnesty are mounting an
aggressive campaign against it.
While education has been highlighted in past attempts to pass the act,
its backers have been highlighting its military provision. In July, Mr.
Durbin told the Senate, "It turns out that many in the Department of
Defense believe, as I do, that the Dream Act is an important part of
making certain we have talented young men and women ready to serve in
our military."
Bill Carr, deputy undersecretary for military personnel policy, cited
the Dream Act's role in addressing shortfalls in recruitment during a
June telephone conference with representatives of veterans groups,
according to the Defense Department's internal news service.
Mainstream Hispanic organizations and student groups continue to rally
behind the Dream Act, which has been pushed since 2001. A few
grass-roots groups have started to voice concern that the bill is being
used as a recruitment tool. Joining the military would likely be a more
realistic option for undocumented Hispanic youths than going to
college, given that many have limited financial means.
"We began to see the danger when the Pentagon started to speak openly
about how the Dream Act will help them," says Jorge Mariscal, professor
of Chicano studies at University of California, San Diego. "It's a new
tracking system to meet manpower needs at this time of extended
occupation of Iraq."
"This bill amounts to an aggressive draft of Hispanics," says Fernando
Suárez del Solar, director of the Guerrero Azteca Peace Project,
an Escondido, Calif., organization that works with Hispanic youth to
discourage them from enlisting in the military.
This archive consists of a topically organized selection of
articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed
publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen
material relevant to the work of