Vets Being Deported

[WillBrink]

It's strange to people can serve yet not be citizens vs legal residents. I'd think you need to be a citizen, and or, if you serve, there should be preference given and fast tracked to citizenship. Obviously, these boy have gone down the wrong path with the law, but I'd think they have earned being processed and experience due process in the US with US laws applied vs just being deported.


Serving in the US military won't protect these veterans from being deported

Army veteran Mario Martinez spent six years of his life fighting for the United States.

Now, he's fighting for the right to keep living here.

Martinez, 54, was born in Mexico, but came to the US as a young child and became a legal resident. He joined the Army, served with the 82nd Airborne Division, and earned an honorable discharge. But more than a decade after he left the service, he was convicted of a felony, putting his immigration status in jeopardy.

"One mistake shouldn't make the rest of your life," said Martinez, who spent four years in California state prison for an assault conviction stemming from a 2008 domestic violence case. "I mean I paid for what I did, I did my time. I did it quietly, went in and got out."

https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-06-...being-deported

[Grand58742]

Here's my question...

The example in the story has been here 50 years. At some point during that time, do you think he could have/should have become a naturalized citizen? I'm all for vets getting the fast track on the citizenship path. But they have to want it and go get it. This man never took the next step on the citizenship path even though he "would have been willing to die for this country"? Furthermore, the article says:

Pasquarella looked at more than 80 cases of veterans who either were deported or facing deportation. Her report last year, called Discharged, then Discarded found that many veterans thought they automatically became citizens through their service. Others applied for naturalization only to have their paperwork lost.

A little personal responsibility might be in order for those 80 cases. I know if I have something important like that, I'd stay on top of it.

[WillBrink]

Here's my question...

The example in the story has been here 50 years. At some point during that time, do you think he could have/should have become a naturalized citizen? I'm all for vets getting the fast track on the citizenship path. But they have to want it and go get it. This man never took the next step on the citizenship path even though he "would have been willing to die for this country"? Furthermore, the article says:


A little personal responsibility might be in order for those 80 cases. I know if I have something important like that, I'd stay on top of it.

I don't disagree with the above, but I'm surprised people can serve who are not citizens. I think he/they should have become naturalized citizen(s) and I wonder if non naturalized citizens should be able to serve, and if they do, should they be given some preference and or fast tracked to citizenship.

[chuckman]

I don't disagree with the above, but I'm surprised people can serve who are not citizens. I think he/they should have become naturalized citizen(s) and I wonder if non naturalized citizens should be able to serve, and if they do, should they be given some preference and or fast tracked to citizenship.

You can serve as enlisted, you cannot be an officer. It used to convey fast track to citizenship. Dang, if it wasn't for the Lodge Act, Special Forces would never have gotten off the ground in the 50s.

[Doc Safari]

I have long been an advocate that serving in the US armed forces should be an automatic path to citizenship. Usually when I post that, a bunch of people counter with "that encourages illegals to enlist in droves, which will dilute the armed forces with too many foreign soldiers who might not be as loyal to the country as native-born American citizens."

So I"ve changed my stance a little to say, "They broke the law to get here regardless of their service. Their service should count toward some path to citizenship, but there should still be some sort of sanction for their coming here illegally."

[T2C]

When I entered military service in the 1970's we had quite a few people serving in the U.S. Navy who were not citizens. We had Jamaicans, Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, etc. who were serving honorably. All of them I knew took the steps to obtain their U.S. citizenship. It was my understanding that serving in the military gave them a leg up on anyone else involved in the process and I think that is the way it should work.

[docsherm]

Non Citizens can serve, I believe 6 years, and only in a few MOSs. That is to give them time to become citizens. If they do not tan thy have to get out. This person has had more than 30 years to get his citizenship. He obviously does not want it. He then commits a felony. If he did not want to go back to Mexico he should not have; A: Done nothing about becoming a citizen, B: Committed a felony.

I know plenty of people that became US citizens with the assistance of the US military. They would not be anywhere as nice as I am being right now.

I do not see how his service is even relevant.

He just needs to go.

[T2C]

Docsherm brings up some good points. Why wouldn't Mr. Martinez work toward Naturalized Citizenship? He had plenty of time and thousands of others did it.

[TMS951]

4 years for domestic violence? That sounds like he really laid into some one, likely a female.

Good riddance.

And as others have said, he had the opportunity to become a citizen, and and advantage in doing so. If the other 80 cases are anything like this, great work is being done and our country will be a little better with out those 80 people.

[Frailer]

Our whole immigration system is utterly broken.

I had a student a couple of years ago who was brought here (illegally) at age 2. For the next 16 years he did everything he was supposed to do--stayed out of trouble, did well in school. He scored an 85 (out of 99) AFQT score on the ASVAB and desperately wanted to join the Army, but there was no way for him to do so.

Correction. Any of the service secretaries can authorize their service to recruit "undocumented" aliens with the stroke of the pen, but no one wants to touch that political tar baby.

This young man has a job, pays his taxes, but he's on a dead-end path. He doesn't even speak Spanish, so moving to Mexico isn't a viable option. I tried to help him figure out a path toward naturalization, but lawyers are expensive, and every single INS employee I spoke with was an idiot.

Here's the way I view the problem:

Before the 1960s Mexicans were encouraged--sometimes officially, sometimes unofficially--to work in the US. "Illegal" immigration was viewed with a wink and a nod. It was like driving 9 miles over the speed limit; yes, it's illegal, but you're not going to get in trouble for it. As a result, everybody does it.

With the end of the "bracero" programs and the passage of the Hart-Celler Act in 1965 we now had a recipe for disaster. Back to the speeding analogy, 99% of the time you can drive 9 miles over and still be OK, but 1% of the time you're going to get pulled over and ticketed not only for that infraction, but for every speeding infraction you've committed in the past 20 years.

We're at the point now where pragmatism must be prioritized over ideology.