As the immigration debate continues to rage across the nation and in the halls of Congress, Veterans Day is an appropriate occasion to set the record straight on what appears to be a stereotype, another myth, of American Nationalism. It came as a shock to me when a neighbor attending our local college told me that she was doing a research paper on Immigrants that have served in our Armed Forces, because the majority of students and faculty members believed that only American citizens have always served in our military. (Hint) This is not a Liberal Arts College (no pun intended).

     Our Armed Forces has always reflected our society and been a means of citizenship to immigrants coming to our shores. The targeting of immigrants to the U.S. for military recruitment during wartime has a long heritage highlighted by the American Civil War. Today the military represents only one percent of the U.S. population and immigrants make up about five percent of the Armed Forces.  Following tradition, military recruitment again focuses on the most vulnerable and desperate in our society seeking opportunity when wartime service is unpopular and as an alternative to national conscription of American citizens. Just as the Irish and Germans were exploited to fight for the Union Army during the Civil War, the foreign-born are now exploited to fight for America in the Middle East, so that American born sons and daughters do not have to. What is unique about this experience compared to previous, including Japanese- Americans that served in the U.S. military during World War II, is that immigrant communities are being selectively targeted for military recruitment in an unpopular war that the nation is not committed to at the same time that there is a heated national anti-immigrant debate.

     The current example of this national inconsistency would be the National Guard Units from Mexican Border States that are largely composed of Hispanic troops. These troops were kept in Iraq while units from other regions and states outside the Southwest composed of less Hispanic troops were deployed to the border for Homeland Security duty. This raises a question of trust between the Administration, Pentagon, and the Hispanic troops they have deployed to fight a war in the Middle East that is similar to that of distrust between black troops sent to fight in Vietnam from the Deep South during the Civil Rights Movement eventually refusing to fight the Vietnamese for white oppressors.

     Several questions arise in considering this U.S. military tradition: What is the current understanding of the American public about who actually serves in our Armed Forces?      What is the accurate demographics and citizenship status of those recruited to serve in our military and are these trends subject to change?

     What is the significance of immigrants serving in the U.S. military today and future plans to expand recruitment of non-citizens?

     Has there been a significant difference between the numbers of Foreign Born recruited for the military during Peacetime vs. Wartime surges in military Recruitment?      What is the anticipated American public reaction to immigrants, including illegal, serving in our military during a growing period of heated anti- immigration debate here in the United States?

     Research leads me to the conclusion that the U.S. pubic in general believes in a stereotype that only American citizens serve in our military despite the fact that non-U.S. citizens have traditionally served proudly and with honor in our military since the American Revolution. However, ethical and political controversy surrounds the demographics and recruitment of immigrants, including undocumented, today.

     Unlike previous U.S. government surges to recruit immigrants for military service, today it is embroiled within the national anti-immigration debate making it a divisive issue for all concerned. Those harmed most by the debate are immigrants who want to serve going against family or ethnic community that does not want them to.  Immigrants serving in our military volunteer for diverse reasons but all share one common link, different from American born volunteers – the promise of U.S. citizenship in return for risking their lives.

     It is common knowledge to anyone intimately familiar with our Armed Forces, and I consider myself a half-decent student of military history, that the recruitment of immigrants has been an American military tradition as American as Apple Pie, the hound Ole Yeller, and the Pick Up Truck. It was a highlight of the American Civil War, and in his ‘symbolic’ Presidential Executive Order of July 4^th, 2002 granting waivers for 15,000 military members to receive expedited U.S. citizenship, President Bush proudly noted that 143,000 non-citizens served the nation during WWI and II, and 31,000 during the Korean war earned U.S. citizenship. Presidents Carter and Clinton followed tradition and signed similar waivers for the foreign born after the Vietnam and Persian Gulf War collectively leading to 100,000 immigrants in our military becoming American citizens. Despite all that has been written on immigrants that served in our military ‘earning’ citizenship, our government has managed to maintain a stereotype in the public eye that only American citizens serve in our military. A review of the current literature reveals a federal government drive after the attacks of September 11, 2001 to expedite the naturalization process for legal immigrants already serving in our military. (Presidential Executive Order, 2002; Fact Sheet for Expedited Naturalizations, 2002) 

     When hostilities spread from a national supported war in Afghanistan to a questionable invasion of Iraq, there was a corresponding detailed emphasis on legal assistance for immigrants ‘within the military’ to gain citizenship by the Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center. (LTC. Lescoult, Moe, 2004)

      As the Iraq War moved into 2005 military recruiters began to miss their quotas as youths desiring to volunteer for a questionable war declined. The Pentagon took a marketing approach and reaction to it’s problem of falling recruitment by targeting those communities and groups most likely to enlist. The most comprehensive demographic study since Vietnam (Peachey, Titus, 2005) gives a break down of who is serving and enlisting using both reliable federal government and media sources.

     With the Iraq War dragging into its fourth year, critics from Immigration Activists groups and others began to highlight the targeting of Hispanic communities by Military Recruiters able to speak Spanish. Growing opposition to a Green Card Draft within the Immigrant community noted that as more Black communities began to resist military recruitment the Pentagon shifted its marketing techniques to other minorities in desperate situations. One tactic critics of the Green Card Draft opposed was military recruiters scamming young Green Card holders (even illegal aliens) into either losing their permanent resident status (being deported) or joining the Army or Marines. 

http://www.metroactive.com/metro/09.19.07/news-0738.html#

      It was not so much serving in the U.S. Armed Forces to ‘earn’ American citizenship that bothered critics as much as the scare tactics used to pressure Green Card holders into enlisting. As criticism continued to increase within the Hispanic and other Immigrant communities to include Immigrant Activist groups picketing Armed Forces Recruiting Stations, the Bush administration responded the only way it know how. Beginning in 2006, the President had the DOD and Citizenship and Naturalization Service cooperate in expediting the U.S. Citizenship of foreign-born troops serving the nation. The propaganda surge included massive troop Naturalization ceremonies with photo ops. It was an effort to show critics and foreign-born troops the Pentagon had recruited that proactive steps were being taken to deliver on promises of U.S. citizenship. Immigrant communities increased counter-military recruitment after it became common knowledge within the Immigrant communities that Soldiers and Marines were dying and their survivors getting no survivor benefits, because the trooper was not a U.S. citizen at time of death. This in turn led to the granting of posthumous U.S. citizenship by the Pentagon so that a fallen warriors dependents could receive the same survivor benefits had the military member been a citizen upon death.

Nearly 600 Troops Reenlist/161 become American citizens in Baghdad on Independence Day 2007.

     During the Multinational Force-Iraq Reenlistment, Naturalization and Independence Day Ceremony July 4 at Camp Victory, Iraq, 588 troops reenlisted and 161 were naturalized as American citizens. To highlight the importance that President Bush placed on the essential need to recruit foreign-born troops, the President himself escorted by Mr. Gonzales, Head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, attended one mass wounded warrior Naturalization ceremony at Walter Reed Army Medial Center prior to the unsanitary conditions scandal.  Either Mr. Gonzales himself or another senior government official continues preside over massive troop Naturalization ceremonies at Immigration Offices, and preferably military bases both stateside and in Iraq and Afghanistan for added effect.

     For the record let me say that I am a strong supporter of immigrants serving in our Armed Forces for one main reason. They have been willing to do something that the majority of people born here distain and that is defend the nation. I worked as a Temporary Hire for the Immigration Service eventually thrilled to leave it, because yes I believe our government has given away American citizenship on the cheap. However, my entire two years there I strongly felt that any young man or women who wanted to express their loyalty to our nation without reservation regardless it be Peacetime or War, that person was going to get my undivided attention and help.

     What I do not condone or advocate is that which President Bush (among others) fail to mention when he uses the EXCUSE that the President is not doing anything his predecessors have not done. That is Mr. Bush fails to mention that the Pentagon NEVER goes out of the way to recruit immigrants during Peacetime. Research trends prove that our government only targets the foreign born for military service using the promise of U.S. citizenship as a carrot during WARTIME.

      I have a problem with that kind of EXPLOITATION that is no different from our government EXPOITING our overall over stretch Armed Forces hiding behind the irony that our Soldiers and Marines let themselves be USED for never ending deployment while the vast majority of young American men and women BORN HERE skate.

     Table 20. Petitions for Naturalization Filed, Persons Naturalized (to U.S. Citizens), and Petitions for Naturalization Denied: Fiscal Years 1907 to 2006  from the Office of Immigration Statistics, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, Department of Homeland Security confirm that prior to each wartime surge in recruitment of the foreign born into our military there is a Peacetime low in recruiting Immigrants.  (on-line public domain.)

     Such a trend in exploitation of immigrants to fight America’s War speaks volumes about our government’s real motivation, especially during unpopular or questionable wars lacking American public support.

      I can no longer condone the targeting of Non-U.S. Citizens for military service using the promise of American citizenship unless our government uses that policy fairly and equally during BOTH Peacetime and Wartime, and it does not.

Have a Great Veterans Today Day!     

Bobby Hanafin, Specialist-5, U.S. Army (69-76), Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired (77-94)

SOURCES: Primarily Federal Government, Pentagon, and U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Service public domain data and Media Releases. Presidential Executive Order. "Expedited Naturalization Executive Order." July 3, 2002. Available online.

Rhem, Sgt. 1st Class Kathleen T. 2002. "No Mandatory Wait Period for Service Members to Become Citizens." American Forces Information Service. July 30. Available online.

Lescault, LTC Moe. 2004. "The Thanks of a Grateful Nation: Immigration Reforms for Those Who Serve." Dialogue Magazine, American Bar Association. Volume 8. Available online.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) Today (Employees Newsletter). "USCIS Naturalizes New Citizen Soldiers." March 2006. Available online.

USCIS Today. "President Bush and Director González Welcome New Citizen American Heroes." August 2006. Available online.

USCIS Today. "On Behalf of a Grateful Nation." December 2006. Available online.