Immigration measure could mean boost for military, proponents say
Proposal would allow immigrant students to attain permanent legal status if they complete two years of college or serve honorably in the military.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/n ... itary.html
By By Eunice Moscoso
WASHINGTON BUREAU
Friday, September 21, 2007

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military, facing recruitment challenges and a continuing war in Iraq, could benefit greatly from a measure that would give illegal immigrant high school students a path to citizenship, proponents say.

Sen Richard Durbin, D-Ill., author of the measure, said this week that it would provide the Pentagon with a pool of ideal candidates for military service at a time when the government is struggling to find soldiers and offering up to $20,000 enlistment bonuses.


"All recruits would be well-qualified high school graduates with good moral character," Durbin said.

The legislation, known as the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (or DREAM) Act, could face a Senate vote as soon as this week.

The measure would allow illegal immigrant students to eventually attain permanent legal status if they complete two years of college or serve honorably in the military for at least two years.

The law would apply to illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States for at least five years before the measure's enactment, have graduated from high school or obtained a GED, and have no criminal record.

The measure was part of a White House-backed immigration overhaul that failed in the Senate this year.

The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimated that the DREAM Act would encourage 279,000 people to enroll in college or join the military.

Margaret Stock, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and a professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., said the legislation would help the Pentagon in several ways.

A large number of illegal immigrant students are Hispanic, a group with a high propensity to choose military service and think of it as a valid career, she said.

In addition, those who enroll in college are likely to join ROTC programs and officer candidate school, she said.

Stock also said that the young immigrants would come fully vetted by the Department of Homeland Security, saving the Pentagon the time and money of conducting criminal background checks.

"These are people who grew up in the United States; they're socialized as Americans. We've paid for their education for the most part. ... And at the point when they're about to become productive members of our society, we're going to deport them. This makes no sense," Stock said.

Max Boot, a senior fellow and military expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, also supports the DREAM Act.

"It's an excellent piece of legislation that will allow us to assimilate some valuable immigrants and also help the military deal with some of its recruiting problems. It's a win-win situation," he said.

Boot and Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, have proposed letting thousands of immigrants into the United States to serve four years in the military in exchange for citizenship.

The two influential scholars say that allowing immigrants to be soldiers would solve the military's recruitment problems and provide it with more translators and experts in other cultures.

Mark Krikorian, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates lower levels of immigration, said the military benefits of the DREAM Act are a "ridiculous exaggeration" and are used as a "fake justification" to give amnesty to illegal immigrants.

emoscoso@coxnews.com