Immigration and Military Enlistment: The Pentagon's Push for the DREAM Act Heats Up

Bill Quigley

01 Aug 2007

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Immigration and Military Enlistment: The Pentagon's Push for the DREAM Act Heats Up

by Jorge Mariscal

"The DREAM Act
could conceivably provide a bonanza of warm bodies that would become available
to increasingly desperate recruiters." RecruitUncleSam

This article originally appeared in Draft NOtices, the newsletter of the
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft.

"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.

RecruitersNotOnCampus
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).

"About 8,000 permanent resident aliens currently enlist
every year."

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.

"More than 125 'green card' service members have died in
the combat zone." RecruitLetRichFightWar

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).

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