COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Youth of Color
Latino activists want restrictions on campus military recruitment
WILLIAM FINN BENNETT, North County Times
August 5, 2005
NORTH COUNTY ---- Three local activist organizations announced Friday they will be kicking off a campaign later this month to mobilize Latino parents to restrict military recruiters' access to their children's names, addresses and phone numbers.The groups ---- the Latino Caucus of the National Network Opposed to the Militarization of Youth, the Guerrero Azteca Project for Peace and the Project on Youth and Non-military Opportunities ---- want to make sure that parents are fully informed of their rights when it comes to restricting military recruiters' access to students' personal contact information.
The campaign also is designed to encourage parents to work with their local school boards to limit military recruitment activities on school campuses, a Friday news release from the organizations stated.
The groups will hold an 11 a.m. press conference Aug. 29 at Chicano Park in San Diego to discuss their plans for mobilizing Latino parents.
Military recruitment officials have defended the practice of on-campus recruitment, saying that they are merely providing students with the information they need to make decisions about their future.
In a June interview a spokesman for the Army recruitment command told the North County Times the Army welcomes opposing points of view, so that students can make informed decisions. One of the more important roles the Army plays is defending Americans' First Amendment rights, he added.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, a sweeping education law that went into effect in 2002, requires that school administrators give military recruiters the names, addresses and phone numbers of students.
What many parents don't know, however, is that the law allows them to request that school officials not release that information to military recruiters, said Jorge Mariscal, a spokesman for the activist groups. The problem is that many parents never become aware of that option, since it is often buried in a short clause in the middle of a long form they receive from school officials, Mariscal said.
"What we are arguing for is full disclosure," he said. "In other parts of the country, school districts make sure the opt-out option is on a separate sheet and clearly marked."
Compounding the problem, a spokesman for one of the groups said, is that even when parents request their children's contact information not be made available to recruiters, military officials often get it anyway. They are able to do so when some schools administer the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery to students, said Rick Jahnkow, program coordinator for the Project on Youth and Non-military Opportunities. The test was developed by the Department of Defense and is administered each year at about 14,000 schools nationwide.
"The ASVAB test is being used to override parents' opt-out (decision)," Jahnkow said.
A spokesman for the San Diego Office of Education said Friday that there are school districts that give students the test in San Diego County, but he could not say which ones.
Jahnkow said that many students have no idea what the test is and often don't even know that they are going to take it.
"For the most part, students are simply told to show up in the cafeteria," Jahnkow said.
Once there and before taking the test, they are given a form that asks for contact information. They are also asked to sign a privacy waiver to allow disclosure of the test results and contact information to military recruiters, he said.
"Most of the students are minors and do not have a legal right to sign away their privacy," he said. "We believe this has been an issue ignored by schools as well as by the military and we are planning on challenging that policy."
Military recruiters often are allowed access to schools on a daily basis and make their sales pitches to teenagers who are not provided with any opposing information about what they may be facing if they sign up for military service, Jahnkow said.
"Schools need to invite those with opposing views to come onto campus and give students the other side of the story, so they can make educated decisions and not ones based on one-sided information," he said. "It's like the deck is stacked against them."
who was 6 when she traveled through the Southern California desert with her mother to enter America illegally. "Nobody can kick me out of here.
My rights will be defended."
In exchange, Quintero-Espinoza and her comrades assumed
responsibilities and risks, including being sent to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan. Phone,
24, the airman first class who came from Burma in 2002, didn't hesitate to
volunteer to serve a nation willing to help him get ahead in life.
"I would be grateful to meet somebody who offers you what you want" in
return for accepting an obligation, said Phone, who became a citizen
about
two years after enlisting. "That's fair -- totally fair -- I think."
A history of service
That deal, with the promise of naturalization, has appealed to millions
of
immigrants and the military throughout American history. The Army, in
particular, has sought out and relied on immigrant recruits, especially
during wars.
In the 1840s, almost half of all recruits were not U.S. citizens, said
Conrad Crane, director of the Army Military History Institute at the
Army
War College in Carlisle, Penn. "They're just right off the boat,
basically."
During the Civil War, the government promised citizenship to
immigrants,
and recruiters sailed overseas to make the pitch. Noncitizens
constituted
as much as 20 percent of the 1.5 million-man Union Army.
"Some of them were attracted, of course, by glory; some of them by a
chance
for adventure," Crane said. "For a lot of them, citizenship is the
promise."
So many immigrants populated the ranks during World War I that the Army
was
dubbed the "American foreign legion" in Europe. After the war, an Army
unit
of 14 nationalities toured the United States to recruit immigrants,
touting
the promise of naturalization.
Many immigrants fought in World War II, but patriotism more than
citizenship drove enlistment, Crane said. Conscription also helped fill
the
ranks and continued to do so until the all-volunteer military returned
in
the 1970s.
Military resource
Given that history, Bush's executive order fast-tracking citizenship
was no
surprise, Crane said. With the Iraq war in its fourth year and military
recruiters struggling, speedy naturalization can attract volunteers and
is
a fitting reward.
"When times get tough to fill the Army and immigrants are available,
they're a resource," Crane said.
Despite raising enlistment bonuses and offering other new incentives,
the
Army has had a tough time attracting people. It missed its target last
year
by 6,600 recruits. April was its worst month effort since last summer.
The military typically accepts only U.S. citizens or legal residents.
Illegal immigrants have slipped in, in some cases with fake citizenship
or
immigration documents, said Stock, the U.S. military academy professor.
As a result of Bush's order, illegal immigrants serving honorably on
active
duty and meeting other requirements are eligible to apply for
citizenship,
Stock said. Also, a new law gives the military the authority to enlist
at
any time anyone, even an illegal immigrant, whose enlistment is deemed
"vital to the national interest."
"They could form a foreign legion right now," Stock said. "I get calls
all
the time from illegal immigrants who want to join the military."
For the most part, recruiters have not targeted noncitizens, said
Douglas
Smith, spokesman for the Army's recruiting command. Recruiting that
targets
populations of noncitizens likely accounts for at least some of the
noncitizen recruits, he said.
California's Army National Guard recruiters do not systematically seek
noncitizens, Guard officials said. They do point out that soldiers can
get
on the naturalization fast track, said spokeswoman Lt. Toni Gray.
"For us, noncitizens contribute valuable language and cultural
expertise,"
Gray said. "The value of their skills, however, is often surpassed by
their
sincere appreciation and commitment to our nation."
Noncitizens have been military standouts, according to a May 2005 study
by
the Center for Naval Analyses, a federally funded research organization
serving the military. For instance, they are about half as likely as
their
U.S.-born comrades to wash out before completing their enlistment.
The military's need for foreign-language speakers recently spurred the
Army
to relax enlistment requirements, including maximum age and English
proficiency, to attract people with such native skills, reported the
Center
for Naval Analyses.
Opposition
Not everyone is pleased at the prospect of increasing the number of
noncitizens in the military.
Among the critics is Krikorian, head of the group that wants stricter
immigration controls. What concerns him is the potential for the
combination of military needs and political pressure from immigration
advocates to widen the ranks and expand benefits for noncitizens.
"This is one of those feel-good issues, at least for politicians," he
said.
"There's no reason that it wouldn't be tacked on to an immigration
bill, if
one were to come up."
Krikorian hasn't much of an argument, says Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El
Monte,
who favors expanded benefits for noncitizen soldiers. The California
congresswoman said immigrants have proved their value to the military
and
have earned their benefits.
"I think he's barking up the wrong tree," Solis said.
Spc. Cristianne Silva, 29, said enlisting in the California Army
National
Guard helped her complete a journey that began eight years ago, when
she
left her native Brazil and illegally entered America in search of a
better
life.
After cleaning houses and doing other jobs, Silva hired an immigration
lawyer and became a legal resident. She learned that her military
service
could help her become a citizen after she joined the Army in 2003 and
was
sent to Iraq.
"I'm still, actually, kind of shocked that I have accomplished this,"
said
Silva, who was naturalized in April in Sacramento.
"After so long of dreaming, now, finally, I can say: Yes, I am a
citizen."
Times staff writer Steven Harmon contributed to this story. Reach Dogen
Hannah at 925-945-4794 or dhannah@cctimes.com.
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