Illegal to serve?
Provision would let undocumented immigrants enlist, but military still turning them away

January 8, 2007
BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Staff Reporter
With war raging in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military is struggling to get enough people in uniform.

Yet recruiters in Chicago and other cities across the United States are turning away potential applicants who are illegal immigrants -- despite a special wartime provision President Bush signed into law after Sept. 11 allowing them to serve.

"At least a few times a week, we see somebody without [legal] residency who otherwise would have been qualified and just like anybody else wants to join to serve their country," said Staff Sgt. Ivan Feliciano, a Marine recruiter at the 51st and Pulaski office.

Fast track to citizenship for some

He echoed the statements of other Chicago military recruiters contacted by the Sun-Times, some estimating they turn down 15 to 20 undocumented candidates per week.
On July 3, 2002, Bush authorized -- in Section 329 of the Immigration and Nationality Act -- an expedited citizenship process for legal immigrants serving in the armed forces in time of war, regardless of their length of residency.

Bush's order also said undocumented immigrants could serve and apply for expedited citizenship, according to Margaret Stock, an immigration lawyer and associate professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

She says that despite a growing need for a diverse group of well- educated, young and bilingual recruits, foreign nationals who reside here illegally are being turned away.

"It's because recruiters know their guidelines, not the word of the law," Stock said.

The guidelines are so complex, even recruiters are shaky on specifics. The ability to apply for free, expedited U.S. citizenship during active duty is well-known and used as an enticement. According to Marilu Cabrera, Chicago's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman, more than 25,000 service members have been naturalized between July 2002 and November 2006 nationwide.

When it comes to the wartime provision for illegal immigrants, the specifics get hazy. A Defense Department spokeswoman said: "Illegal immigrants cannot join the U.S. military. They must have their green card, they must be a resident alien, and after they have a year of service they can apply for citizenship."

But statutes on the books since '02 give the secretaries of each military branch authority to waive the green card requirement, David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in July.

No one's clamoring to sign up

Still, no move has been made to tap the pool of undocumented immigrants. And Maj. Stewart Upton, a Defense Department spokesman, said the military will not allow illegal aliens to serve.
Jack Martin, director of special projects for the nonpartisan Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington, D.C., said opening military enlistment to the undocumented would go against the efforts of those who have taken pains to immigrate legally.

"In effect, that would be an inducement for people to enter the U.S. illegally to try to gain citizenship," Martin said.

There has been no uproar from immigrant groups asking for the opportunity to serve, likely because illegal immigrants are afraid to confront the government, experts say. But not Torribio Barrera. The bilingual, 34-year-old Rockdale resident is fighting for the chance to put his training as a mechanical engineer and firefighter to use for his adopted country.

In 1993, Barrera left Mexico while working toward his undergrad degree. It was his dream to become a cadet at the U.S. Naval Academy, but he entered the country illegally and made himself ineligible for citizenship.

Last fall Barrera put himself into depoon proceedings to get a one-on-one meeting with an immigration judge and plead for a waiver. And he still plans to keep writing letters and calling Navy officials, asking them to let him enlist.

ecepeda@suntimes.com


WHAT HAPPENS IF THERE IS A DRAFT?
An order signed by President Bush on July 3, 2002, requires undocumented immigrants to register for the Selective Service. If the draft was reinstated -- the Selective Service recently announced a comprehensive "readiness exercise" of its system, despite denials the agency is gearing up for a draft -- military services could draft undocumented immigrants.

"If you are a foreigner and you are drafted, you are allowed to refuse," according to immigration lawyer Margaret Stock. "But they then have to leave the country permanently and are banned from getting U.S. citizenship."

At a July 10, 2006, Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on how changes in immigration law would affect the military, U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace gave emotional testimony on the service of immigrants, noting that 200 awards or medals of honor have gone to non-U.S. citizens serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. Posthumous citizenship has been awarded to 101 non-U.S. citizens who died in military action since Sept. 11.

Esther J. Cepeda

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2...mmig08.article