Voting Resources
Should Illegal Immigrants be Allowed to Serve in the US Military?
This post is one side of an ONLINE DEBATE between Norman Adams and Shirley Spellerberg.
My good friend Shirley Spellerberg has a problem with the two most likely presumptive GOP nominees for President. She is upset that both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have admitted that they would approve of a modified DREAM act that “focused on military service.”
For Shirley, that is tantamount to “amnesty” and dangerous to national security because she believes that it could allow jihadists to infiltrate our military and commit massacres similar to that perpetrated at Fort Hood.
But, Shirley what about the “rule of law?” I ask this question because current law already allows expedited naturalization through military service. Section 328 and 329 of the Immigration and Nationality Act already exempt members of the U.S. armed forces from residence and physical presence naturalization requirements. They must be current legal residents, but we already allow them to skip the standard process. Why? Because military service is something that our public policy should reward.
Shirley lists the Fort Hood gunmen as an example of the dangerous threat we face from allowing illegal immigrants to enlist. But, Nidal Hassan was born and raised in Arlington, Virginia. He was never an illegal immigrant. He was a terrorist born and raised on U.S. soil.
Shirley’s view would refuse military service and citizenship to Marcario Garcia. Who is Marcario Garcia? Mr. Garcia was not born in the United States. He was born in Mexico and found himself at the age of 24 in Grosshau, Germany pinned down by heavy machine gun fire from Nazi troops.
Wounded, Garcia refused evacuation and crawled forward under the machine gun fire to lob hand grenades into the enemy machine gun nest. He killed three German soldiers and captured four others. He saved his company and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Before the war, Garcia had worked as a cotton farmer in Sugarland, Texas coming from Mexico in 1924. He received his American citizenship on June 25, 1947.
Shirley asks “[W]ould you want your son, daughter, sister, brother, father, wife or husband serving alongside an illegal alien who does not pledge allegiance to our flag and to the republic for which it stands?” But she forgets, that by definition, every member of the U.S. Armed Forces must swear and oath to the U.S. Constitution. Yes, Shirley, I would be proud to serve next to soldiers like Marcario Garcia!
Comments
illegals in the military
It is foolish to use "exceptions" as an arguement for being in favor or against what should be considered uniform "rule". That is equivalent to saying that some people in prison are good people therefore all people in prison should be assumed to be good people.
The country has a law regarding illegals (which currently neither R or D's are chosing to enforce) . There is a process by which a foreigner can become a US citizen and that process SHOULD NOT allow a short cut by allowing foreigners to join USA armed service. In fact the current practice is really stupid as the govenment which tells businesses that they cannot hire illegals is the same govenment who is saying it's OK for THEM to hire them into OUR armed forces.
Illegal Aliens in the military
To think that any illegal who takes an Oath to defend America is telling the truth, is naive. We know that Jihadists believe that anything they say or do is okay, according to Allah, in order to achieve their goal of killing the 'infidels' (non Mslims).
The sacrifices made by those non-citizens, who served in our military in the past is appreciated. However, under today's threat of Jihadists, it is time to
re-think our policy of permitting those in our country illegally to join the military. And, it is time to vet those already in the military, citizens and non-citizens alike, as to any ties they may have with those who are out to destroy us.
Amnesty is awarding any benefit to those who have entered our country in violation of existing immigration laws. Your plan called a "Sensible Immigration Plan" is Amnesty whether or not you want to acknowledge it.Your tireless effort to incude the SIP in the 2010 Republican Party Platform was soundly defeated both in the Platform Committee (on which I served) and on the floor of the RPT 2010 convention. Your contractor friends in the Texas Association of Business and the Chamber of Commerce prefer to hire illegal aliens who will work for much less than Americans as they put business profits above the Rule of Law.
Sorry, Norm, but those who violate our immigration laws and those who promote that violation are putting self-interest above our state and national interest. I shall continue to work against Amnesty by whatever name is devised to hide it. I invite others to do likewise.