COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Personnel Crunch
Immigration and Military Enlistment:The Pentagon's Push for the DREAM Act Heats Up
Jorge Mariscal, Draft NOtices
July-September 2007
The
Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM, provision
in the immigration bill is expected to help boost military
recruiting.” − Bill Carr, Acting Deputy Undersecretary of
Defense for Military Personnel Policy
"I've been here almost eight years. I feel like I belong to this
country," he said. "People like me, we want to serve the country. We
love this country. We don't have papers. We can't afford to go to
college. The military is the perfect option for us.” −
Sebastián, undocumented student from Mexico
In early June, a two-pronged media cycle dealing with the issue of
non-citizen soldiers and military recruitment slowly began to
materialize. Following on the heels of an internal Pentagon study that
reported a general decrease in interest in military service among young
Americans, the debate about the role of non-citizens in the U.S.
military intensified.
In the Washington Post, reporter Brigid Schulte filed a feature story
titled, “Why Won't We Let Them Fill the Ranks?”, in which
she described the willingness of many undocumented youth to enlist.
Schulte’s piece is filled with enthusiastic comments from
undocumented youth who are eager to sign up.
At one point, she depicts a group of undocumented workers cheering as
the invasion of Iraq begins, apparently because the war would afford
them the opportunity to enlist.
As immigration reform failed to move forward in Congress, Pentagon
spokesmen made public statements about their hope that at least the
DREAM Act part of the legislation would pass. In an article published
by the American Forces Press Service, Acting Deputy Undersecretary of
Defense Carr stated, “Talk is already taking place to see if at
least the DREAM provision of the stalled bill can proceed."
In a marriage of strange bedfellows, proponents of the DREAM Act and
Pentagon officials are hoping that programs such as the DREAM Act will
be passed as stand-alone bills. But lawmakers such as Sen. Lindsey
Graham do not see this as a real possibility without comprehensive
immigration reform: “The only way we’re going to get
ag[ricultural] jobs or DREAM Act is to do it together,” he told a
reporter.
The Recruiter’s DREAM
Over the last several years, COMD has reported on the hidden provision
in the DREAM Act that would tie permanent legal residency to military
service. The most recently defeated legislation − the DREAM Act
of 2007 (sections 621 through 632) − proposed by Sen. Edward
Kennedy with the co-sponsorship of Sen. Arlen Specter, would have
created a path to a green card for any undocumented youth who arrived
in the United States before they were 16, lived here for five years,
and successfully completed high school. Those who met these
requirements would have received provisional residency that would
become permanent once they complete two years of college or two years
in the military (of course, there is no such thing as a two-year
military contract).
According to a Pentagon spokesman, about 8,000 permanent resident
aliens currently enlist every year. The DREAM Act could conceivably
open the floodgates to the some 750,000 undocumented military-age youth
who meet the profile described above. It could potentially provide an
additional 65,000 high school graduates every year. Even if only a
small percentage of that group opted for military service, a bonanza of
warm bodies would become available to increasingly desperate recruiters.
Conservatives who oppose the recruitment of more non-citizens into the
military fundamentally misunderstand the group that would qualify under
the DREAM Act provisions. In a publication of the John Birch Society,
for example, Ann Shibler asked: “Is it wise to look to illegal
immigrants who haven't assimilated well, learned the language of our
nation, and whose loyalties may lie elsewhere to be trained in the
finer points of warfare and combat?”
But in fact the vast majority of these students will have been well
acculturated into U.S. society, have a high school or even a college
diploma and no criminal record, be perfectly bilingual in English and
Spanish, and express a strong desire to prove their loyalty to the
United States.
Although the draft of the most recent legislation suggested that those
undocumented immigrants who enlist under the provision would become
eligible for a so-called Z visa − the status that already is used
to grant probationary, or conditional, status as a legal resident
− DREAM Act proponents are working to separate their constituents
out from the Z visa category because of its much longer list of
requirements.
Ironically, nativist and restrictionist groups, as well as
anti-militarism activists and militant Chicano organizations, will
oppose the recruitment of the undocumented although for completely
different reasons.
The Association of Raza Educators in Los Angeles has supported
undocumented students with scholarships and mentoring but now publicly
opposes the DREAM Act legislation because of the military component.
Their July press release took issue with groups supporting the DREAM
Act and stated: “According to research on the education pipeline
for Raza students, the vast majority will be forced to legalize by
joining the U.S. Armed Forces. We hope that these
‘activist’ and non-profit organizations look past their
self interest and think carefully about the adverse effects the DREAM
Act will have on the ENTIRE undocumented community and on poor peoples
around the world” (emphasis in original).
On the other side of the political spectrum, the National Council for
La Raza (NCLR) supports a vehicle for recruiting undocumented graduates
from U.S. high schools. In May 2006, NCLR praised the passage of the
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (Senate Bill 2611) that included a
DREAM Act provision.
The High Cost of Legalization
In her story on non-citizen soldiers, writer Mary Spicuzza tells of
Angel Gómez, an immigrant from the Mexican state of Jalisco:
Angel wasn't the best student, and without scholarships, he felt like
he didn't have a choice. So he enlisted, even though his mother tried
to stop him. "I knew he was fighting for a better life, but I told him
I would prefer him to be poor and have a humble job," she says. "But he
wanted to study, and we couldn't pay for it."
He enlisted in July 2003. Two years later, after he'd returned from
Iraq, Angel was sworn in as a U.S. citizen. But things were different
since he got injured there. Sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a
plastic helmet to protect his brain, Angel and his parents faced an
immigration official.
"Please raise your right hand," the official said. Angel couldn't
− he's mostly lost the use of that arm. He raised his left hand
instead and said a soft "I do" at the proper moment.
Angel was finally a citizen, but any hopes of going to college were all
but dashed. He had to once again learn how to walk, to talk, and to
live on his own.
Angel’s story is dramatic but not necessarily unique. Some
non-citizens who have fought in Iraq have been denied citizenship upon
their return simply because of a minor criminal infraction on their
record. Others have paid the ultimate price − more than 125
“green card” service members have died in the combat zone.
The situation for non-citizen soldiers, even those who have served
overseas and received honorable discharges, continues to be fraught
with legal obstacles. Take the case of the two veterans in Texas, for
example, who enlisted as permanent residents and eventually became
citizens. Because the Texas Hazelwood Act states that only those who
were U.S. citizens at the time of their enlistment will be exempted
from paying tuition and some fees at state colleges, the two men were
denied the benefits awarded to their fellow veterans. A lawsuit will
decide the matter sometime this summer.
During the first week of July, undocumented students from the
California DREAM Network began a fast in several cities designed to
accelerate passage of the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration
reform. Many of these students are already doing well in colleges
across the nation; others have already received their degree and are
hoping to go on to graduate studies.
These are the lucky ones. They have overcome great obstacles and see
the DREAM Act legislation as their salvation because it would allow
them to move out of the shadows and into legal status. Although some
express concern about the military option, they argue that they will
work to educate their peers about the potentially high cost of
legalization through military service.
But how many of their less fortunate compatriots will they be able to
reach and how many will they convince? Won’t the vast majority of
undocumented youth find the college path simply too difficult and the
military path deceptively simple? How many like Sebastián and
Angel will end up as cannon fodder in the next unnecessary war?
Information sources: Rowan Scarborough, “Interest in military
service plummets among the young,” examiner.com (Atlanta; June 4,
2007); Donna Miles, “Officials Hope to Rekindle Interest in
Immigration Bill Provision,” American Forces Press Service (June
11, 2007); Brigid Schulte, “Why Won't We Let Them Fill the
Ranks?,” washingtonpost.com (June 3, 2007); Mary Spicuzza,
“An Army of Uno,” San Francisco Weekly.com (June 20, 2007);
Bryan Bender, “Immigration bill offers a military path to US
dream,” Boston Globe (June 16, 2007).
This article is from Draft NOtices, the newsletter of the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (http://www.comdsd.org)
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