Monday, August 20, 2007

36,000 Non-Citizen Soldiers

Amid all the hostility directed toward illegal immigrants recently was a comment that they should be made to serve in the military to gain citizenship. A New York Times article at the beginning of the war reported that one of the first two Marines killed in Iraq, Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 27, was an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala. He was granted citizenship posthumously. Gutierrez's only living relative, a sister, lives in a shack on the outskirts of Guatemala City.

At the time, there were roughly 36,000 soldiers, green card holders and other legal residents, who were serving but were not American citizens. Those who serve are put on a fast track to citizenship.

Daily, dozens of Mexicans inquired at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico if they could serve in order to become American citizens. They were turned away.

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