We think the Revolutionary War was fought over taxes, but a bigger complaint was that King George prevented immigrants from coming to America and getting citizenship. Margaret Stock, an immigration attorney and retired Army officer who oversaw a program for foreign-born recruits, said. “At one point non-citizens comprised one-third of the Continental Army.”
In WWII, over 300,000 immigrants helped the US defeat fascism. Thirty-thousand German Jews who fled the Nazi regime became part of a U.S. Army unit that later interrogated captured Nazis. They were responsible for 60% of the intelligence gathered in Europe during the war.
An article by Ken Olsen in the June 2021 American Legion magazine, titled “Thank You and Now Goodbye,” goes on to quote Stock.
“Today,” Stock said, “the Department of Defense would say they are a national security threat and wouldn’t allow them to enlist.”
As I reflect on the men and women who came here for a better future, I am personally saddened by the tens of thousands of more recent immigrant service members who risked their lives for the promise of citizenship, only to have the promise pulled away and even find themselves deported.
Since 1952, federal law has allowed lawful permanent residents to become citizens after a year of honorable military service. Many eligible servicemembers missed this benefit because of the mistaken belief that they automatically became citizens when they joined the military, without filing applications for naturalization. Many have been deported because of service-related PTSD that led to problems with alcohol, drugs, and petty crime. They are unable to get VA benefits and forcibly separated from their families. Shockingly, current and former U.S. service members are denied citizenship at far higher rates than civilians.
They are part of a long history of immigrant service that made and sustained the United States. They did their part; on Independence Day, we should honor their service.
