Saturday, May 08, 2010

‘afraid to deploy’


As we are once again watching and listening to the rabid language of hate about those like most of the rest of us, immigrants, illegal, while companies and individuals readily employ, and legal, though they resemble the illegal so one state is forcing all to carry papers of identification, Question: what about white european illegals?, many have always served in our armed forces while those condemning haven't!

GIs ‘afraid to deploy’ over spouses’ illegal status

Catch-22 prevents many service members from attaining citizenship for kin

Lt. Kenneth Tenebro enlisted in the armed forces after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, signing up even before he became an American citizen.

He served one tour of duty in Iraq, dodging roadside bombs, and he would like to do another. But throughout that first mission, he harbored a fear he did not share with anyone in the military. Lieutenant Tenebro worried that his wife, Wilma, back home in New York with their infant daughter, would be deported.

Wilma, who like her husband was born in the Philippines, is an illegal immigrant.

Snip

Immigration lawyers and Department of Homeland Security officials say that many thousands of people in the military have spouses or close relatives who are illegal immigrants. Many of those service members have fought to gain legal status for their family members — only to hit a legal dead end created in 1996, when Congress last made major revisions to the immigration laws.

Today the issue is not only personal. "It is an issue of readiness for the American armed forces," says Representative Zoe Lofgren, the Democrat from California who leads the House subcommittee on immigration. "We have many Americans who are afraid to deploy."

Snip

Lieutenant Tenebro would like to make a career in the military, including new missions to Iraq or Afghanistan, but for now he is not stepping forward for an overseas deployment. "Our situation has kept me at bay because of the constant worry that something might happen to my family while I am away," he said.

With the debate over illegal immigration sharpening after a tough law passed in Arizona, immigration lawyers said the Tenebros’ case illustrates legal obstacles that have stopped immigrants from becoming legal even when they could qualify.

"We have made it impossible for many illegal immigrants to become legal," said Charles Kuck, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta who was 2009 president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the national bar. Continued Here

While the Huge Majority don't serve nor even seek out service as they cheer on wars of choice, while also rabidly protesting against funding the results of these wars, think 'tea party' {now} and 'taxes' {always}, and condemn those opposed to the failed policies of creating more hatreds thus enemies through death and destruction, i.e. terrorism, as well as any not like them, Legal or Illegal!

Lets look at some numbers, and remember once again, huge majorities ranting about our immigration laws especially the rabid racial groups and militia members, Don't Serve nor Seek To!

65,000 immigrants serving in the U.S. military

Statistics on Immigrant Service Members on Active Duty:
Approximately 65,000 immigrants serve in the armed forces.
More than two-thirds of the foreign born serving in the armed forces are naturalized citizens.
The foreign born represent approximately 5 percent of all active-duty personnel.
Of all military branches, the navy has the highest number of foreign-born personnel.
Approximately 8 percent of those serving in the navy are foreign born.
Over 11,000 foreign-born women are serving in the armed forces.
The top two countries of origin for foreign-born military personnel are the Philippines and Mexico.
Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for the largest percentage of the foreign born, followed closely by Asia. Continued Here

Immigrants in the US Armed Forces

According to data from the Department of Defense, more than 65,000 immigrants (non-US citizens and naturalized citizens) were serving on active duty in the US Armed Forces as of February 2008. Since September 2001, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has naturalized more than 37,250 foreign-born members of the US Armed Forces and granted posthumous citizenship to 111 service members.

The current presence of immigrants in the military has a number of historical precedents. According to USCIS, the foreign born composed half of all military recruits by the 1840s and 20 percent of the 1.5 million service members in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, and certain nationals of three countries in free association with the United States — the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau — are eligible for military service. In addition, Congress can deem other foreign-born individuals as eligible to serve if the secretary of a specific military branch "determines that such enlistment is vital to the national interest." Continued Here

And then we have this going on, or better yet like much about our wars of choice finally coming to light as it's been going on for a long time, ask many of our Vietnam Brothers.

Stop the Deportation of Immigrant Military Veterans

They put their lives on the line in the service of the United States of America, and ended up being booted out of the country they fought for.

Immigrant military veterans of wars from Vietnam to Iraq have returned home from their service only to find detention and deportation awaiting them. More wound up on ICE's list after committing a criminal offense, most often drug-related. Veterans frequently end up in trouble with the law because they suffer from untreated Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which the country has done a notoriously bad job of taking seriously and providing treatment for. These veterans should and do serve out jail sentences for their crimes, like any citizen veterans; but to then also deport them from the land they served is despicable. They served our flag, and they are our responsibility, for better or worse. Continued Here

When you're in the presence, or get the ability to ask questions, of someone ranting about 'immigrants', be they citizen, politician, talking heads, ask if they're in the military at time of their wars and occupations, they condemned others of not supporting, or if they've ever served or tried to serve! They have the right to rant but make them face their own reality and the fact they wouldn't want same pointed directly at them over any issue!

Illegal Immigrants: Uncle Sam Wants You

Latino teenagers, including illegal immigrants are being recruited into the military with false promises.

In 1996, Jesus Alberto Suarez del Solar was a 13-year-old boy, up from Tijuana on a family shopping trip, when he stopped at a Marine Corps recruiting table at an open-air mall in Chula Vista, Calif.

Jesus had been an easy mark for the recruiter-a boy who fantasized that by joining the powerful, heroic U.S. Marines, he could help his own country fight drug lords. He gave the recruiter his address and phone number in Mexico, and the recruiter called him twice a week for the next two years, until he had talked Jesus into convincing his parents to move to California. Fernando and Rose Suarez sold their home and their laundry business and immigrated with their children to Escondido, where Jesus enrolled at a high school known for academic achievement. But the recruiter wanted him to transfer to a school for problem teenagers, since its requirements for graduation were lower and Jesus would be able to finish sooner. He was 17 and a half when he graduated from that school, still too young to enlist on his own, so his father co-signed the enlistment form, as the military requires for underage recruits. Continued Here

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