Militarization of US immigrant rights movement dangerous


Russia Today
Published 26 May, 2010
Edited 27 May, 2010


As the Latino population grows into America's largest minority, the community is being targeted by the US military as a new and steady source of recruits.

"Yo Soy el Army: America's New Military Caste" is a documentary film by Marco Amador that looks at the militarization of the immigration debate in America.

A study by Rand in 2009 found that Latinos were underrepresented in the US military. This led to changes in military recruitment, specifically the adjusting of standards and testing requirements. During this reevaluation, the military decided to pursue new ways to target the Latino community. One of these was offering citizenship through military service.

The DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act ), which gives undocumented students the opportunity to acquire citizenship through college, also has a substantial military component.

“For us, that’s a huge problem. Mainly because in the invasion in 2003 in Iraq, 20 percent of the casualties in the invasion were Latino,â€