Irregular Army: The rise of foreign citizens in the US military
Although this is a new departure for the U.S. military in fact there are a number of other nations who recruit foreign citizens: In France, for example, the Foreign Legion relies on about 8,000 non-citizens. But how it will affect the U.S. armed forces is still being played out
By Matt Kennard on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 - 384 words.
While the ‘war on terror’ has been underway, the U.S. military has granted citizenship to 32,500 foreigners, a reward for serving in the armed forces. This has included Mexicans, Venezuelans, Germans, Spaniards, amongst many others.
The stage was set in July 2002 when President Bush signed an executive order that allowed for those who agreed to fight for the U.S. to become naturalized as a reward. Since then, 8,000 non-citizens have enlisted every year, mostly from Latino and Caribbean countries. As of February 2008, there were 20,326 immigrants in active duty in all branches of the military.Another 13,151 were in the Reserves.
This issue hit the headlines immediately in Iraq when the first soldier killed in the Iraq war turned out to be Guatemalan. Lance Cpl. Jose Antonio Gutierrez, 22, was an orphan in Guatemala and had entered the foster care system in Los Angeles. He received a green card just before joining the Marines. He died on March 21st 2003 after coming under enemy fire as American troops tried to secure Umm Qasr and he has since been the subject of a movie, The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez.
The issue of foreign-born soldiers fighting for the U.S. military to get citizenship has drawn praise and ire.
Some immigrant rights groups claim it’s a blackmail that many are too desperate to turn down. “It would be another example of the exploitation of cheap labor,” says Jorge Mariscal, a professor of Latino studies at the University of California, San Diego.
Most prominently Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution and Max Boot, from the Council on Foreign Relation, contend that the War on Terror opens a “new chapter in the annals of American immigration.”
They write in the Washington Post in 2006, “The idea of offering citizenship to foreigners who first join the armed force should be a winner for everyone. It is good for immigrants… [and]… It is good for a beleaguered American military that is simply too small for the tasks it has been handed.”
Although this is a new departure for the U.S. military in fact there are a number of other nations who recruit foreign citizens: In France, for example, the Foreign Legion relies on about 8,000 non-citizens. But how it will affect the U.S. armed forces is still being played out.
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Matt Kennard
26London
Matt Kennard graduated from the Journalism School at Columbia University as a Toni Stabile Investigative scholar in 2008. He now works for the Financial Times in London. He has written for the Guardian, Salon, The Comment Factory and the Chicago Tribune, amongst others. In 2006 he won the Guardian Student Feature Writer of the Year Award
mattkennard@thecommentfactory.com
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