Wall Street Journal Article

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1190...googlenews_wsj

Bill Offers U.S. Citizenship for Military Service
Illegal-Immigrant Act
Offering U.S. Citizenship
May Fill Military Void
By MIRIAM JORDAN
September 21, 2007; Page A8

Backers of legislation that could help hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants become citizens are trying to overcome political opposition by emphasizing the bill's potential to help the U.S. military meet war-time personnel needs.

The military has seemed receptive, but some Hispanic groups have expressed concern that the bill is a ploy to pull young Latin Americans into combat situations for which they wouldn't otherwise have volunteered.
• The Push: Some senators are trying to revive the Dream Act, which would put hundreds of thousands of mainly Hispanic high-school graduates here illegally on the path to citizenship.
• The Strategy: Senators are calling attention to a provision that would enable the youth to legalize their status by enlisting in the military.
• Coming Soon: Sen. Dick Durbin will try to attach the Dream Act to the annual defense-authorization bill.

Months after the collapse of a broad immigration overhaul, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D. Ill.) plans to offer by next week a smaller measure that could give 360,000 illegal immigrants with high-school degrees a path to citizenship. The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the Dream Act, is known for seeking to do that through education, by giving undocumented immigrants a temporary window to complete two years of college -- after which they would qualify for legal status.

The proposal has a lesser-known component that would offer the same opportunity to undocumented immigrants with a high-school education who enroll in the military. Military experts say the Dream Act would significantly increase the pool of qualified recruits in the Hispanic population, which comprises the majority of illegal immigrants and which surveys indicate has a higher propensity to enlist than any other group. Although it is believed that some illegal immigrants serve in the armed forces, they aren't officially allowed to enlist.

"It would be tremendously beneficial to the military," says Margaret Stock, a West Point professor who studies immigrants in the military. "It gives the opportunity to enlist hundreds of thousands of high-quality people. They will be encouraged to join the U.S. military."

Ms. Stock said Dream Act candidates are especially attractive because they aren't school dropouts, boast a clean record and will have been fully vetted by the Department of Homeland Security "before even coming to the recruiter's door."

A 2005 study by the Rand Corp. on military enlistment of Hispanic youth found they are underrepresented in the armed forces despite their interest because they often don't meet some standards at the same rate as other groups, such as graduating from high school. "The military would love to recruit more qualified noncitizens," says Beth Asch, a Rand economist who specializes in military manpower. "This is a potentially very recruitable group."
[Dream]

On the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Durbin said the Dream Act would help solve the "recruitment crisis we face today."

Under the Dream Act, he said, "tens of thousands of well-qualified potential recruits would become eligible for military service for the first time. They are eager to serve in the armed services, and under the Dream Act, they would have a very strong incentive to enlist because it would give them a path to permanent legal status."

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had been briefed on the bill. Declining to comment on the proposed legislation, the spokesman said, "We would never want to deny any qualified person the opportunity to serve our nation."

About 750,000 illegal immigrants, ages 5 to 18, live in the U.S., according to the National Immigration Law Center, a Washington advocacy group. Each year, about 65,000 illegal immigrants graduate from high school. Because of their illegal status, these students don't qualify for federal-and-state grants and loans or work-study programs. Only one out of 20 undocumented high-school seniors ends up attending college.

The bill would give temporary residency for six years to high-school graduates who lived in the U.S. continuously for five years and arrived here by age 15. During these six years, youngsters who attended college for two years or served at least two years in the military would be eligible for citizenship.

Because the bill boasts bipartisan support, it has a chance of passing if its sponsors succeed in attaching it to the defense-authorization bill. Anti-illegal immigrant activists and some Republican lawmakers who deem the Dream Act to be tantamount to amnesty are mounting an aggressive campaign against it.

While education has been highlighted in past attempts to pass the act, its backers have been highlighting its military provision. In July, Mr. Durbin told the Senate, "It turns out that many in the Department of Defense believe, as I do, that the Dream Act is an important part of making certain we have talented young men and women ready to serve in our military."

Bill Carr, deputy undersecretary for military personnel policy, cited the Dream Act's role in addressing shortfalls in recruitment during a June telephone conference with representatives of veterans groups, according to the Defense Department's internal news service.

Mainstream Hispanic organizations and student groups continue to rally behind the Dream Act, which has been pushed since 2001. A few grass-roots groups have started to voice concern that the bill is being used as a recruitment tool. Joining the military would likely be a more realistic option for undocumented Hispanic youths than going to college, given that many have limited financial means.

"We began to see the danger when the Pentagon started to speak openly about how the Dream Act will help them," says Jorge Mariscal, professor of Chicano studies at University of California, San Diego. "It's a new tracking system to meet manpower needs at this time of extended occupation of Iraq."

"This bill amounts to an aggressive draft of Hispanics," says Fernando Suárez del Solar, director of the Guerrero Azteca Peace Project, an Escondido, Calif., organization that works with Hispanic youth to discourage them from enlisting in the military.

paste the full article ?

This is wonderful, if only Gates would make a few phone calls on behalf of dream. We must keep contacting the military on this.

Guys,

This is just my opinion but I truly, honestly believe that this article is the best news we could've gotten on the media front. You just have no idea how influential the WSJ is and what kind of money, power, and activism it brings. This is the most respected paper in the world and though its readers will not hit the streets with signs of protest they just might call some people who can really change things. These are people who meet Senators and generals for golf every weekend and talk about nothing but what they read in the Journal. I KNOW this is how it works from experience. If DREAM becomes a conversation during one of these meeting it will be the best thing that we've got going for us.

DREAM makes perfect sense to the kind of people who rely on the WSJ and you may never realize how big of a deal this article is.


This is absolutely incredibly good news.