Thread: DREAM Act Students Volunteer to Serve in the Military

DREAM Act Students Volunteer to Serve in the Military

Published December 01, 2010

A group of young undocumented immigrants gathered Tuesday at a military recruiting center in the U.S. capital, offering to serve as volunteers in the military of the country they grew up in.

Their demonstration was an attempt to pressure Congress into approving the DREAM Act, legislation that would allow immigrants whose families brought them into the United States illegally to obtain legal residence if they serve in the Armed Forces or go to college.

"This is our country, the country we love," 21-year-old Lizardo Bujelet told Efe. "All we ask is justice, not a favor."

Born in Peru and now a resident of San Antonio, Bujelet said it was only three or four years ago when he found out he was undocumented.

In high school Bujelet joined the ROTC where he learned to march like the other volunteers, as he now marched with all the young people demonstrating in front of the Washington recruiting office.

The problem for undocumented immigrants, according to Mexican-born Cesar Vargas, a third-year law student in New York, is that they can't get financial aid for their studies.

"Since (the terrorist attacks against the U.S. in) September 2001, I felt that I wanted to serve the country I call my land, my home," Vargas said, adding that he is eager for Congress to pass legislation that would allow him to join the Marine Corps.

Reporters were not allowed in the offices where volunteers were being interviewed, but Vargas said that the army officer in charge of the interviews "showed his support and told us that he knows many immigrants who have a greater sense of patriotism than many Americans born here."

Alina Cortes, 19, told Efe that she learned of her undocumented status when, shortly before graduating from high school, she was notified that she did not qualify for a scholarship or government grants for going to college.

"I had to study with the aid of private scholarships and the efforts of my family," said Cortes, a Mexico City native attending college in Texas who also wants to become a Marine.

The DREAM Act is a bill introduced by Democrats and Republicans that would legalize hundreds of thousands of young people brought to the United States as children and raised in this country.

Shu Ohno, spokesperson for the Immigration Forum, said that similar activities are being carried out in a number of states including California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Texas and Wisconsin.

On Monday, 15 demonstrators were arrested at the San Antonio offices of Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison after a six-hour protest asking the lawmaker to support the DREAM Act.

The demonstrators were members of a group of students who 20 days ago began a hunger strike in support of the DREAM Act.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2 ... z16sSBxSiB

"ANYTHING TO KEEP THEMSELVES AND THEY'RE ILLEGAL PARENTS HERE!"

How special. Knowing that gang members also volunteer for the military so they can get paid for weapons training, I'm not impressed.

I notice that two of these ingrates are attending college. Their problem is they are not getting a free ride. If they want to join the military so bad, I suggest they go join up in their native countries. Our military has done quite well without you all these years, even though "immigrants have a greater sense of patriotism than many Americans born here". Of course they do, thats why they march in the street holding up ther filthy mexican rag.