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  1. #1
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    Father Wages Campaign Against 'Green Card Marines'

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... CSURU1.DTL

    Dead recruit's father wages campaign against 'green card Marines'
    Prospect of careers, citizenship not worth the danger, he warns
    Monica Campbell, Chronicle Foreign Service

    Sunday, May 22, 2005

    Mexico City -- Fernando Suarez del Solar feels a sense of urgency about the war in Iraq -- and not just because he lost his only son there two years ago.

    It is his duty, he says, to warn young Latinos about the perils of joining the U.S. military and becoming, like his son, a "green card Marine," lured by promises of a college education, post-service career and fast-track citizenship.

    Three years ago, President Bush offered accelerated citizenship to any green card holder who has served in the military since Sept. 11, 2001.

    Instead, the bereaved father tells would-be recruits, they could wind up like Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez, killed at age 20 after he stepped on an unexploded cluster bomb in March 2003, during the first week of the war.

    "Immigrants are generally the first on the front lines," Suarez said. "They should know where they'll end up."

    While there is no way to confirm the truth of that assertion, Latinos comprise more than a third of the 41,000 foreign citizens in the U.S. fighting force, according to the Defense Department, with the largest number -- 8,539 -- from California. Immigrant troops are most visible in the Army and Marines, the services with the highest casualty rates in Iraq, but barely present in the Navy and Air Force, Pentagon records show.

    From March 19, 2003, when the Iraq war began, through April 9, 2005, of the more than 1,500 U.S. service members who had died in Iraq, 171 were Latinos, said Bryan Driver, public affairs officer for the Marines' Casualty Assistance Branch in Quantico, Va. The largest number -- 103 -- were in the Army, followed by 69 in the Marines, 3 in the Air Force and 2 in the Navy.

    Neither the Pentagon nor the immigration division of the Homeland Security Department counts green card military personnel by country of origin. But anti-war groups such as San Diego-based Aztec Warrior, which Suarez founded after the death of his son, estimate that almost half the Latino troops killed in Iraq were noncitizens, with Mexicans comprising the majority of that group.

    Suarez, a short man with thinning black hair and tired eyes, has barnstormed across the United States to discourage immigrant recruits, providing them with information about noncitizens' rights and lists of organizations that offer college scholarships as an alternative to joining the military.

    He reaches "new immigrant families who don't understand the military system yet," said Jorge Mariscal, a literature professor who specializes in Chicano studies at UC San Diego. "It's only in the last year or so that other Latino groups have recognized the dilemma of green card soldiers, and Fernando has played a key part in making that public."

    In past months, Suarez has made several visits to San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley.

    "I think he's had a big impact, at least in the Bay Area," said Susan Quinlan of the Oakland office of the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors. "An awful lot of anti-war activists and certainly counter- recruiters know of him and admire his work."

    It's hard to measure whether counter-recruiters such as Suarez are having an effect on the declining rates of military signups. But Flora Ortiz, a 17- year-old high school senior from El Monte, in the low-income outskirts of eastern Los Angeles, said she was hit hard by his presentation.

    Ortiz, a U.S. legal resident born in Guadalajara, Mexico, said that for years she had planned to join the Marines. She was drawn to the discipline of boot camp and the chance to "make my parents proud," she said in a phone interview. The death of a cousin in Iraq in 2003 didn't discourage her, and she already had started the paperwork.

    But in February, while she was researching a paper about Latinos in the military, Ortiz heard Suarez speak. Afterward, she told him about her enlistment plans, and they talked about alternatives. "But you know what really got me?" she said. "I just saw his eyes -- they were so watery. I realized I never wanted my mom's to look like that."

    Ortiz is now planning on community college and wants to be a kindergarten teacher, although she's still uncertain whether she made the right choice.

    Late last month, Suarez took his personal campaign to Mexico, where he told audiences of prospective immigrants that they could lose their Mexican citizenship by serving in a foreign army, according to Mexican law.

    Although the military deducts education costs from their monthly paychecks, Suarez told them U.S. recruiters fail to explain that. And he warned them that noncitizens are barred from becoming officers or serving in posts requiring access to classified information -- an assertion confirmed by Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky.

    "If we build awareness here, it'll spark more conversations across the border about the realities of the war," Suarez said during his Mexico City swing.

    On a recent evening at Mexico City's National Autonomous University, the nation's largest public college, Suarez addressed about 100 students with his standard warnings.

    Hugo Oscar Ramirez, 21, an international relations student who attended the event, said he has discussed joining the U.S. military with a cousin who lives in San Bernardino County. "We talked a lot about whether he should join the Army to earn money for college," Ramirez said. "None of this noncitizen stuff came up. In any case, I don't think he'll join. It's too dangerous."

    Suarez, who is a Mexican citizen, owned a laundry business in Tijuana. He moved to Escondido (San Diego County) in 1997 with his wife, son and three daughters so Jesus could establish residency, join the Marines and then pursue his goal of becoming a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. In his native Tijuana, Jesus had mourned the loss of too many friends from drug-related deaths and pledged to do something about it, his father recalled.

    Most recruits sign up for four years of active duty and four years in the reserves, said David Griesmer, a spokesman for Marine Corps Recruiting Command based in Quantico.

    But Suarez said a Marine recruiter in San Diego lied to Jesus by saying he could become a DEA agent after serving for just a year.

    "Of course it doesn't work that way. He couldn't join the DEA after a year. But we didn't know that when Jesus signed up," Suarez said. "We didn't know which questions to ask. And I don't think ours is an isolated case."

    When asked during a telephone interview about Suarez's claims, Griesmer said, "There's no way to verify that what he's telling you is the truth. ... We don't have a 'For Hire' sign in Mexico. If you don't like what you're hearing, you can walk away. And I can tell you that everything is spelled out in a contract when the applicant signs."

    The Army is investigating allegations of improper conduct by its recruiters, and suspended signups for a day Friday so recruiters could receive additional training. The Army has missed its enlistment targets this fiscal year, a trend that is pronounced among noncitizens. The annual number of immigrant enlistees fell almost 20 percent between 2001 and 2004, in contrast to a 12 percent drop among U.S. citizens, according to the Defense Department.

    Since his son's death on March 27, 2003, Suarez has swapped his quiet life as a cashier at a 7-Eleven store in Escondido for that of a full-time activist. Sponsored by San Francisco's Global Exchange and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker anti-war organization, Suarez has already spoken at 150 schools across the United States. He has traveled to Iraq twice to speak with Latino troops.

    "Some people tell me, 'Those anti-war activists are using you,' " Suarez said. "But it's the reverse: I'm using them."

    His wife, Rosa, refuses to meet with the mothers of other dead U.S. soldiers, saying it's too painful to talk about. His daughters wish he would stop his campaign. "They think that the things I say about Bush and the war will get me into trouble," Suarez said.

    David Rodriguez, national commander of the American GI Forum, an organization of Latino veterans, said most Latinos are unlikely to join an anti-war campaign. "I feel for the guy. It's pretty painful to lose a son," said Rodriguez, a Vietnam veteran who lives in San Jose. "But when you join the military, you go in to fight for the United States."

    At every stop he makes, Suarez carries a Marine-issued laminated photo of his son and a sign that reads: "Bush lied, my son died." He says he will continue to speak out as a way of honoring his son's memory.

    "This photo keeps me going," he said. "I take it out before I speak and say, 'OK, hijo, help me out here. What should I say?' And he advises me."
    RIP Butterbean! We miss you and hope you are well in heaven.-- Your ALIPAC friends

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  2. #2
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    Re: Father Wages Campaign Against 'Green Card Marines'

    Quote Originally Posted by butterbean
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/22/MNGQ2CSURU1.DTL

    Dead recruit's father wages campaign against 'green card Marines'
    Prospect of careers, citizenship not worth the danger, he warns
    Monica Campbell, Chronicle Foreign Service

    Sunday, May 22, 2005

    Mexico City -- Fernando Suarez del Solar feels a sense of urgency about the war in Iraq -- and not just because he lost his only son there two years ago.

    It is his duty, he says, to warn young Latinos about the perils of joining the U.S. military and becoming, like his son, a "green card Marine," lured by promises of a college education, post-service career and fast-track citizenship.

    Sixx says: Sorry about the lose of your son, sir. However we have lost our sons and daughters in this "war" as well. Had he not been here illegally he would be alive today.

    Three years ago, President Bush offered accelerated citizenship to any green card holder who has served in the military since Sept. 11, 2001.

    Sixx says: April Fools

    Instead, the bereaved father tells would-be recruits, they could wind up like Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez, killed at age 20 after he stepped on an unexploded cluster bomb in March 2003, during the first week of the war.

    Sixx says: He did not die because of a green card. Being a Marine is dangerous work. It is after all called the "United States Marine Corps"

    "Immigrants are generally the first on the front lines," Suarez said. "They should know where they'll end up."
    While there is no way to confirm the truth of that assertion, Latinos comprise more than a third of the 41,000 foreign citizens in the U.S. fighting force, according to the Defense Department, with the largest number -- 8,539 -- from California. Immigrant troops are most visible in the Army and Marines, the services with the highest casualty rates in Iraq, but barely present in the Navy and Air Force, Pentagon records show.

    Sixx says: They are on the front lines because that is where Marines always have been. They don't qualify for the Air Force and Navy. These services are highly technical. Not many Americans qualify either because the school systems are not preparing them in math and the other sciences need to operate and maintain the sophisticated equipment that these two services use.

    From March 19, 2003, when the Iraq war began, through April 9, 2005, of the more than 1,500 U.S. service members who had died in Iraq, 171 were Latinos, said Bryan Driver, public affairs officer for the Marines' Casualty Assistance Branch in Quantico, Va. The largest number -- 103 -- were in the Army, followed by 69 in the Marines, 3 in the Air Force and 2 in the Navy.

    Neither the Pentagon nor the immigration division of the Homeland Security Department counts green card military personnel by country of origin. But anti-war groups such as San Diego-based Aztec Warrior, which Suarez founded after the death of his son, estimate that almost half the Latino troops killed in Iraq were noncitizens, with Mexicans comprising the majority of that group.

    Sixx says: So don't join. There is no free immigration card. Freedom is not free, vato!!!!

    Suarez, a short man with thinning black hair and tired eyes, has barnstormed across the United States to discourage immigrant recruits, providing them with information about noncitizens' rights and lists of organizations that offer college scholarships as an alternative to joining the military.

    Sixx says: And when they get out of college they will not be able to get a job due to their immigration status. Still not the answer. GO HOME!!

    He reaches "new immigrant families who don't understand the military system yet," said Jorge Mariscal, a literature professor who specializes in Chicano studies at UC San Diego. "It's only in the last year or so that other Latino groups have recognized the dilemma of green card soldiers, and Fernando has played a key part in making that public."

    In past months, Suarez has made several visits to San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley.

    "I think he's had a big impact, at least in the Bay Area," said Susan Quinlan of the Oakland office of the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors. "An awful lot of anti-war activists and certainly counter- recruiters know of him and admire his work."

    It's hard to measure whether counter-recruiters such as Suarez are having an effect on the declining rates of military signups. But Flora Ortiz, a 17- year-old high school senior from El Monte, in the low-income outskirts of eastern Los Angeles, said she was hit hard by his presentation.

    Ortiz, a U.S. legal resident born in Guadalajara, Mexico, said that for years she had planned to join the Marines. She was drawn to the discipline of boot camp and the chance to "make my parents proud," she said in a phone interview. The death of a cousin in Iraq in 2003 didn't discourage her, and she already had started the paperwork.
    But in February, while she was researching a paper about Latinos in the military, Ortiz heard Suarez speak. Afterward, she told him about her enlistment plans, and they talked about alternatives. "But you know what really got me?" she said. "I just saw his eyes -- they were so watery. I realized I never wanted my mom's to look like that."

    Sixx says: Who does?

    Ortiz is now planning on community college and wants to be a kindergarten teacher, although she's still uncertain whether she made the right choice.

    Sixx says: Yes, that may be a better choice. Good Luck

    Late last month, Suarez took his personal campaign to Mexico, where he told audiences of prospective immigrants that they could lose their Mexican citizenship by serving in a foreign army, according to Mexican law.

    Sixx says: And their lives. War is not a Cinco de Mayo celebration. There is a way to keep your Mexican citenship: STAY HOME!!!!


    Although the military deducts education costs from their monthly paychecks, Suarez told them U.S. recruiters fail to explain that. And he warned them that noncitizens are barred from becoming officers or serving in posts requiring access to classified information -- an assertion confirmed by Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky.

    Sixx says: Officers must be American citizens and I am sure that the recruiters are advising them of this, the good ones at least. We don't need our classified information in the hands of future MS-13 recruits


    "If we build awareness here, it'll spark more conversations across the border about the realities of the war," Suarez said during his Mexico City swing.

    On a recent evening at Mexico City's National Autonomous University, the nation's largest public college, Suarez addressed about 100 students with his standard warnings.

    Hugo Oscar Ramirez, 21, an international relations student who attended the event, said he has discussed joining the U.S. military with a cousin who lives in San Bernardino County. "We talked a lot about whether he should join the Army to earn money for college," Ramirez said. "None of this noncitizen stuff came up. In any case, I don't think he'll join. It's too dangerous."

    Sixx says: Yes, it dangerous. Too dangerous. But it is fun, in a perverse type of way. College, even with in state tuition is not an option either. You won't be able to work here in your chosen field. It is against the LAW!!

    Suarez, who is a Mexican citizen, owned a laundry business in Tijuana. He moved to Escondido (San Diego County) in 1997 with his wife, son and three daughters so Jesus could establish residency, join the Marines and then pursue his goal of becoming a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. In his native Tijuana, Jesus had mourned the loss of too many friends from drug-related deaths and pledged to do something about it, his father recalled.

    Most recruits sign up for four years of active duty and four years in the reserves, said David Griesmer, a spokesman for Marine Corps Recruiting Command based in Quantico.

    But Suarez said a Marine recruiter in San Diego lied to Jesus by saying he could become a DEA agent after serving for just a year.

    "Of course it doesn't work that way. He couldn't join the DEA after a year. But we didn't know that when Jesus signed up," Suarez said. "We didn't know which questions to ask. And I don't think ours is an isolated case."

    When asked during a telephone interview about Suarez's claims, Griesmer said, "There's no way to verify that what he's telling you is the truth. ... We don't have a 'For Hire' sign in Mexico. If you don't like what you're hearing, you can walk away. And I can tell you that everything is spelled out in a contract when the applicant signs."

    The Army is investigating allegations of improper conduct by its recruiters, and suspended signups for a day Friday so recruiters could receive additional training. The Army has missed its enlistment targets this fiscal year, a trend that is pronounced among noncitizens. The annual number of immigrant enlistees fell almost 20 percent between 2001 and 2004, in contrast to a 12 percent drop among U.S. citizens, according to the Defense Department.

    Since his son's death on March 27, 2003, Suarez has swapped his quiet life as a cashier at a 7-Eleven store in Escondido for that of a full-time activist. Sponsored by San Francisco's Global Exchange and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker anti-war organization, Suarez has already spoken at 150 schools across the United States. He has traveled to Iraq twice to speak with Latino troops.

    "Some people tell me, 'Those anti-war activists are using you,' " Suarez said. "But it's the reverse: I'm using them."

    His wife, Rosa, refuses to meet with the mothers of other dead U.S. soldiers, saying it's too painful to talk about. His daughters wish he would stop his campaign. "They think that the things I say about Bush and the war will get me into trouble," Suarez said.

    David Rodriguez, national commander of the American GI Forum, an organization of Latino veterans, said most Latinos are unlikely to join an anti-war campaign. "I feel for the guy. It's pretty painful to lose a son," said Rodriguez, a Vietnam veteran who lives in San Jose. "But when you join the military, you go in to fight for the United States."

    At every stop he makes, Suarez carries a Marine-issued laminated photo of his son and a sign that reads: "Bush lied, my son died." He says he will continue to speak out as a way of honoring his son's memory.

    "This photo keeps me going," he said. "I take it out before I speak and say, 'OK, hijo, help me out here. What should I say?' And he advises me."
    You should say that your son was a law breaker and that crime does not pay, even in a uniform
    FAR BEYOND DRIVEN

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