Thread: Military's Immigration Battle

By Miriam Jordan
Updated Dec. 9, 2013 8:53 p.m. ET
The Wall Street Journal

Pentagon Revisits Policy Barring Those With Spouses, Children in U.S. Illegally

A few years ago, Beatriz Madriz enlisted in the Marine Corps. Then, just before heading to boot camp, a recruiter told her that she had to divorce her husband if she still wanted to join the Marines—because he was an illegal immigrant.

"They told me they would even pay for the divorce," said the 22-year-old Portland, Ore., resident. "I wasn't going to do that."

Amid an increase in complaints from U.S. citizens who, like Ms. Madriz, have been denied the right to enlist, the Department of Defense has begun reviewing a policy that bars individuals from joining the military if a spouse or child are in the U.S. illegally, according to immigration attorneys.

The review was initiated in response to challenges to the policy raised by Reps. Mike Coffman (R., Colo.) and Luis Gutiérrez (D., Ill.) in a Nov. 21 letter to the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force that was signed by 33 lawmakers.

The army's personnel-management director, Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Seamands, responded in a Dec. 5 letter that the office of the undersecretary of Defense "has initiated a policy review in this area, in coordination with all the Military Services." He said the review would take about 60 days.

Mr. Gutiérrez said Monday he was pleased the Pentagon is taking the bipartisan request seriously. "We should not be excluding U.S. citizens from serving their country, and we should be protecting their families from deportation while their sons and daughters and spouses are off to war," he said.

The policy, which has been outlined in recruitment manuals for four years, hasn't been applied consistently by the various branches, reflecting the confusion at the federal level over how the armed forces should deal with immigration issues. This policy concern has arisen at the same time as efforts to overhaul laws to address illegal immigrants have stalled in Congress.

Acknowledging some troops have dependents who are illegal immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security last month formalized a policy that enables such relatives to remain in the country and apply for legal residency. In announcing the "parole in place" policy, the department said its goal was to "reduce the uncertainty our active-duty and retired military personnel face because of the immigration status of their family members."

Following the announcement, discussions flared on social media among service members about individuals denied the chance to enlist or whose contracts had been cancelled over the immigration status of a dependent.

Margaret Stock, a retired Army Reserve lieutenant colonel and immigration attorney in Anchorage, Alaska, said she has been contacted about problems for individuals trying to join the Army, Marine Corps and Navy. An Army recruiter told one of her clients that he couldn't enlist "unless he sent his unauthorized spouse out of the U.S."

"It's no problem if your spouse lives outside the U.S. and has no immigration status or even has been deported for being an aggravated felon," she said. "This makes no sense."

There is no official Pentagon policy that bars enlisting an applicant who has an undocumented dependent, said Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen, a Department of Defense spokesman.

"The services have established policies…based on administrative and security concerns," he said. In particular, he said, undocumented dependents can't obtain military identification cards.

Navy spokeswoman Cmdr. Wendy Snyder said documentation of dependents is "critical" to a recruit's ability to obtain "required security clearances." The Navy has refused to enlist individuals with undocumented dependents since 2009, she said.

The Marine Corps' regulation against enlisting applicants with undocumented dependents is in the 2011 recruiter manual. "This policy ensures we effectively accomplish our recruiting mission…so Marine Corps Recruiting Command maintains a quality force," the Marine Corps said.

The Air Force doesn't have a policy against enlisting individuals with undocumented dependents.

A spokeswoman for the Army said current policy doesn't bar enlistment based on the immigration status of a family member.

The armed forces' 2,824 recruitment offices across the country don't track how many individuals are denied the chance to enlist under the exclusionary policy, according to the Pentagon.

Portland, Ore., attorney Teresa Statler represented a soldier whose security clearance and promotion were placed on hold when the military discovered he had married an illegal immigrant. Last month, the attorney helped his wife get legal residency.

Ms. Statler also represented Ms. Madriz who, instead of joining the Marines, ended up going to college. "My plan is to go to medical school," said Ms. Madriz, whose husband recently became a legal permanent resident.

Ms. Statler said, "The military lost an accomplished person."

A representative for the Marines said it wouldn't comment on specific cases.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...48584130068744

'Parole in place': Obama's illegal-immigration order stokes amnesty worries

The Obama administration has issued a directive on illegal immigration that allows undocumented immigrants who are closely related to military personnel to stay in the country. The order comes amid mounting pressure on President Obama.


By Lourdes Medrano, Correspondent / December 9, 2013

• 

After taking the oath of citizenship at a swearing-in ceremony in Anaheim, Calif., last month, Evelyn Patino holds a poster of her son, Claudio Patino, a US Marine killed in Afghanistan. Ms. Patino's application for citizenship was expedited by the Marines after her son's death. A new policy directive is intended to offer greater clarity in similar cases.

Alex Gallardo/Reuters/File

TUCSON, ARIZ.

Facing intense pressure from immigrant advocates who want the president to do more to limit deportations, the Obama administration has quietly issued a directive to help undocumented immigrants who are closely related to military personnel stay in the country.

The effort is called "parole in place," and it aims to end rampant confusion among immigration officials about how to treat the parents, spouses, and minor children of those in active duty as well as veterans and reservists. Under parole in place, these relatives no longer have to leave the country to apply for legal US status – a situation that often resulted in the applicants being barred from reentering the US for years.

The move follows a more sweeping decision by President Obama last year to defer deportation for some young immigrants who have lived in the United States illegally since they were children. With immigration reform having ground to a standstill in Congress, such executive-branch actions are seen as the only means for Obama to advance pro-immigrant policies, at least for now.

RECOMMENDED: Could you pass a US citizenship test?

It is unclear how many undocumented immigrants the directive will affect. But "it's very significant," says Margaret Stock, an Alaska immigration attorney and retired Army reserve lieutenant colonel. "It will affect a lot of people."

Late last month, Mr. Obama was heckled at an event in San Francisco by a young man who complained: “Our families are separated. I need your help! You have a power to stop deportation for all undocumented immigrants in this country.”
Obama countered: “Actually, I don't,” and argued that only Congress, through immigration reform, can stop deportations on a massive scale.

But the Department of Homeland Security has long had the authority to halt the deportation of people related to military personnel, and it is this function that the department clarified with specific guidelines to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in a Nov. 15 memorandum. The order relies on existing statutes and is not an eclipsing of congressional authority, homeland security officials say.

Critics disagree. They see parole in place, like Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals last year, as amnesty by small drips.

"By the end of 2016, the administration may well have decided it can parole in nearly all of the illegal alien population," writes Dan Stein of the Federation of American Immigration Reform, which pushes for tight immigration laws, on the group's website. "Finding ways to overcome statutory limits on immigration appears to be the administration’s overriding policy objective."
For some military families, parole in place will ease the anxiety deployed service men and women felt about the possibility of family members being deported in their absence, officials say. The idea of having to leave the country in order to legally gain reentry has been "an infamous Catch-22 that's been in the law since 1996 when Congress created it," says Ms. Stock.

The US government has historically relied on immigrants to help fight its wars. Almost half of enlisted Army soldiers in the 1840s were immigrants, and, between 1862 and 2000, more than 660,000 veterans obtained citizenship, says Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen, a Department of Defense spokesman.

"Noncitizens that serve in the armed forces have, and will continue to play a vital role in the US military," he adds, noting that some 35,000 noncitizens serve in the military, with about 5,000 of them enlisting each year.

After 9/11, the government made various policy changes to encourage legal residents to enlist in the military, says Daniel Cosgrove, a USCIS spokesman.

President Bush's 2002 order offering noncitizens a fast track to citizenship proved attractive for many immigrants who chose to join the armed forces. Between that year and 2013, a total of 97,742 immigrants became naturalized US citizens here and abroad.

Up until the draft ended in 1973, many immigrants who served in military combat were in the country illegally.

"Undocumented people get drafted," Stock says. "And so if you were a male, and you were living in the country without papers, you got drafted, and you would serve in the military and get your citizenship after you got drafted."

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politic...mnesty-worries