Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 13:08:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Kamran D. Rastegar" <kdr7-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: Military Recruitment of Non-Citizens



... an article answering many of Jana's questions concerning the
recruitment of non-citizens into the US military.

-KdR

---

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraq/134670000_citizen06m.html

Sunday, April 06, 2003

By Nancy Bartley
Seattle Times staff reporter

The Rio Grande stretched before her, a vast green-brown graveyard
where people she knew had drowned. On one side was Mexico and all that
was familiar in Lidia Cruz's 6-year-old life: her first-grade class,
her small home in a dusty village, the winds that blew waves of sand
across fields of peppers.

Her mother made the sign of the cross on her and on her little sister
and brother, told them all to be good, and drove across a bridge to
Brownsville, Texas, entering the United States legally because she was
a teacher and had a visa.

Cruz, her siblings and their father hid in brush for hours as an
immigration official with a rifle patrolled the area on horseback,
looking for families just like theirs — Mexicans about to enter the
United States illegally.

Thirteen years later, that day remains vivid in Cruz's memory: how she
cried when her father crossed the wide river in a false-bottom raft
with the younger children, leaving her alone, scared and hiding in a
cave until he could return for her.

Now 19 and, like her parents and siblings, a legal resident of the
U.S., Cruz is "giving something back to America" for welcoming her and
understanding her family's quest for a better life. She's an airman
apprentice in the Navy, stationed in Everett and waiting to join the
crew of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, returning after nine
months in the Mideast.

"When I joined, my mom cried forever, but she realized they couldn't
put me through college," Cruz said.

In today's military, men and women in U.S. uniforms may hail from such
far-flung countries as Senegal, Vietnam and Bosnia.

They may have enlisted to take advantage of a fast track to
citizenship made possible by an executive order President Bush signed
in July, which made it possible for noncitizens in the military to
circumvent the usual three-year wait for naturalization.

Like Cruz, they may be from poor families and have no other way to get
an education or the job training the military offers.

Or, also like Cruz, who often serves with an honor guard at the
funerals of Navy veterans, they may have joined to protect the country
they now call home.

Some 37,000 noncitizens are serving in the armed forces. While still a
small part of the entire U.S. military, their numbers have increased
by 30 percent since 2000, particularly after Bush's order was signed.
They enter with a green card, which makes them legal residents. Like
other recruits, they must be high-school graduates or have a GED and
pass physical and intelligence tests.

In the military, they can hold any position U.S. citizens do — from
infantry soldier to supply clerk to officer — except those requiring a
security clearance.

"When you see someone in a U.S. Navy uniform who is speaking with a
New Zealand accent, you do wonder where he hails from," said Navy Lt.
Cmdr. Dan Jones, who as a lawyer helps noncitizens at the Naval
Submarine Base in Bangor with the paperwork involved in becoming
citizens.

Most recently, he helped a 25-year-old Navy clerk from American Samoa
who works as a legal assistant at Bangor.

In Tukwila's Marine recruiting office, men and women from many
countries have become leathernecks, often under a one-year,
delayed-entry program that gives recruiters like Gunnery Sgt. Rajendra
Patel time to prepare them for Marine Corps life.

Patel grew up in India, immigrated to the U.S. at 13 and graduated
from Ballard High School in 1986, becoming a U.S. citizen after
joining the Corps.

"If it hadn't been possible for us to be in the United States, I can't
imagine what I'd be doing now," said Patel, 36, who belonged to the
Guarti ethnic group of farmers and merchants, for whom there was
little hope of a college education.

A familiar face in the same recruiting office is Irhad Lizde, 21, who
five years ago moved to the U.S. from Bosnia to escape the war, which
had taken the lives of two uncles and wounded his older brother.

In Bosnia, there was no food, and the family lived with others in
cramped conditions.

In America, Lizde went to school, graduating from Foster High School
in Tukwila in 2001. In January, he and two friends — one born in
Vietnam and another from Bosnia — joined the Marines, seeking training
and education. For Lizde, the Corps offered a chance for success and
U.S. citizenship.

For all the enticements the military offers immigrants, the unskilled
among them may find themselves on the front lines of battle.

Among the first casualties of the war with Iraq were two U.S. Marines
who weren't yet citizens. On Wednesday, Lance Cpl. Jose A. Gutierrez —
who entered the country illegally from Guatemala but later became a
legal resident — and Mexican-born Cpl. Jose A. Garibay were
posthumously granted their citizenship.

Lizde accepts the risks. "It will be my job."

Like the Tukwila office, most recruiting offices reflect the
nationalities of their communities.

In Bellingham, Army Staff Sgt. Derek Duplisea enlists Canadian
citizens seeking adventure and training that's not as available in the
smaller Canadian army.

Duplisea, who had dual citizenship, grew up in Canada but had to
choose when he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He renounced his Canadian
citizenship.

At the Yakima Army recruiting office, Sgt. 1st Class Jerry Carpenter
finds Hispanics often want to serve. Those who qualify "are very
patriotic," Carpenter said, with entire families often becoming
involved in a recruit's decision to join.

Lidia Cruz sees her service in the Navy as part of a journey her
family has taken to a better life.

"In Mexico, my father was gone most of the time because he had to work
three jobs," Cruz said. "In my village, no one went to school past
junior high. The boys left to get work and the girls to get married.

"My father wanted us to have a better life."

In her American hometown of Houston, Cruz's younger siblings plan to
follow her into the Navy, although her mother greets the news with
trepidation.

While all who know Cruz admire her accomplishments, her friends and
family were concerned when she was assigned to the Lincoln after she
completed training in Florida.

"My mother was very afraid for me," she said. But Cruz is proud to
serve. When the Lincoln arrives in Everett, probably within a month,
she will put her training to work, directing aircraft around on the
ship, making sure the runway is ready for takeoffs and landings.

A few days ago, Cruz dressed in crisp Class A's — hat, white gloves,
dark blue jacket and skirt — and stood as a member of an honor guard
for a Navy veteran being buried at the Tahoma National Cemetery near
Kent. As bagpipers played on that drizzly afternoon, Cruz and another
sailor removed an American flag from a table. They displayed it for
the grieving family, then slowly folded it. Rectangles became a
triangle, as crisp as the report from a 21-gun salute.

"I like doing this because it's important to the families, and they
are always so grateful to us," Cruz said. "Some people say, 'I want to
join the Navy just like you.' "

Cruz enlisted right out of high school in Houston, finishing basic
training last month. It was another step in the life her father hoped
for that day he gathered his children in his arms, said a prayer, and
led them into the world that awaited across the Rio Grande.

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley-AT-seattletimes.com




     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---