The Trump administration’s draconian and hastily drafted immigration orders rescind a key protection for military families so that now even military spouses and children can be rounded up and deported.
I am not surprised the hypocrites at CPAC embrace a Commander in Chief who was a shameless draft dodger. I am not surprised they turn a blind eye to Trump’s selling out American interests for Russian lucre. The stupid sheep flout their ignorance chanting “USA! USA!” while waving Russian flags. Nothing should surprise me. But gleefully embracing a policy that stabs thousands of our troops in the heart? I’ll be honest, I would have lost that bet. Looks like Maxine Waters is right, these guys really are scumbags.
The Executive Orders of this administration, as codified in The Feb 20, 2017 Department of Homeland Security Memo breaks faith with deployed active duty service men and women. It will harm thousands of military families.
As the San Diego Union-Tribune reports
In 2013, the Department of Homeland Security, at the request of the Defense Department, issued a policy memorandum aimed at preventing the deportation of spouses, parents and children of active-duty service members through a program called “Parole in Place.”
This was as much about national security as it was about upholding our commitment to support our troops. The Department of Homeland Security wrote, at the time, that “military preparedness can potentially be adversely affected if active members of the U.S. armed forces … worry about the immigration status of their spouses, parents and children.”
Like so many other previously sacred trusts, this has been torn up, and Trump’s minions will laugh while they use the shredded paper to wipe their ass. This is not a minor offense. Many active duty military are NOT American citizens.
You may be surprised to learn the 2nd man to die in the invasion of Iraq was not an American citizen. Marine Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez was a Guatemalan with permanent resident status. He was awarded American citizenship posthumously.
In 2008, the Department of Defense reported that 5% of all active-duty personnel were immigrants. Every year about 8,000 permanent residents enlist. Non-citizens do extremely well in the military. In fact, Marine General Peter Pace offered the following testimony before Congress about the importance of immigrants in the military:
“[Immigrant soldiers and marines] are extremely dependable … some 8, 9, or 10 percent fewer immigrants wash out of our initial training programs than do those who are currently citizens. Some 10 percent or more than those who are currently citizens complete their first initial period of obligated service to the country.”
The importance of providing for these men and women, and their families has been explicitly supported by Republican and Democratic administrations for obvious reasons of national security. Even the rabid Republicans in Congress during the Obama administration supported the continuation and expansion of this program.
- In July 2002, the President issued an executive order that made noncitizen members of the armed forces eligible for expedited US citizenship.
- Revisions in the US citizenship law in 2004 have allowed USCIS to conduct naturalization interviews and ceremonies for foreign-born US armed forces members serving at military bases abroad. According to USCIS data from April 2008, more than 5,050 foreign-born service members have become citizens during overseas military naturalization ceremonies while on active duty in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Kenya, as well as in the Pacific aboard the USS Kitty Hawk.
- Between September 2001 and 2008, USCIS has naturalized more than 37,250 foreign-born members of the armed forces and granted posthumous citizenship to 111 service members.
The new immigration enforcement policy eviscerated “Parole in Place” protections. As of Monday, February 20, 2017, any so-called conservative who applauds Trump’s actions while applauding the service of active duty military is a hypocrite.
The new enforcement directive could have maintained protections for this program, as it did others. It could have made clear that agents of the U.S. government will not round up and deport the spouses and children of our active duty service members. Instead, it casually dispensed with exercises of executive discretion based on a “specified class or category of aliens.” The administration either did not know or did not care that one of these specified classes included military families. It abandons a promise made to recruits who joined the United States military in the last four years.
The new policy is a callous slap in the face to thousands of deployed troops. Gen. John Kelly USMC (Ret) should be ashamed of himself. What kind of Marine dishonors the sacrifice of dead Marines like Jose Gutierrez? I don’t care how many medals you have. I don’t care if you are the longest serving general in Marine Corps history. You don’t shit on your brothers. By signing this memorandum and enacting this policy, it is clear that Kelly fits right in with the rest of the scumbags in the Trump administration.
