Tuesday, May 06, 2003
An army of Juans
I read an article about the number of steps Riayan Tejeda took from his front door to the military recruiter's office. It was 206 steps from his Washington Heights apartment home. A violent drug trade dominated his Dominican neighborhood when Riayan was 14 . Two years later, the Heights erupted in several days of violence after a police shooting. In 206 steps he went from this hard knock life as a immigrant kid to become a U.S. Marine. He told his mother what he had done, and why: "You just watch me. I'm going to make something of my life."
Baghdad had collapsed, the statues of Hussein were toppled, and Bush was said to be giddy. Then, on April 11, in the messy mop-up after the assault on Baghdad, Sergeant Tejeda was killed in a firefight with some straggling Hussein loyalists. He was 26 years old, Riayan Tejeda almost made it. Just a couple of weeks before, Riayan's father took those same 203 steps to come into the recruiting office to ask the recruiting sergeant on behalf of Riayan's worried mother, if he heard from his child? Where was his child? When would his child be coming home? Of course, neither man knew that Riayan was alive at the time, but he would soon die, in Baghdad. Did the recruiter take those 203 steps to get back to his parents with the news of his death? I believe Riayan took those 203 steps to get a better life.
Some ask, why would a Dominican die for the United States? Was the United States using the promise of expedited citizenship as a lure to bolster its front lines? A woman who gave her name only as Celeste paused in front of the sidewalk memorial to Sergeant Tejeda, muttered in Spanish that "he died for a country that wasn't even his," then she moved on.
Sergeant Tejeda served for more than eight years in the Marines, but was never able to became an American citizen. He was one of more than 37,000 legal permanent residents serving in the armed forces, according to the Defense Department, and one of many to be wounded or die during the invasion of this unjust Iraqi war. Jim Capel, the New York chief of staff to Representative Charles Rangel, whose Congressional district includes Washington Heights. Mr. Capel said that Mr. Rangel would seek citizenship for the sergeant posthumously if his family desired it, but that so far no discussions with the family had taken place. Little was said about the fact that posthumous citizenship was a purely symbolic gesture with no rights or privileges accruing to the deceased person's family (Last week, Representative Darrell Issa (R-Ca) proposed automatic citizenship for the surviving spouse and children of non-citizen soldiers killed in battle and given posthumous citizenship).
More dead immigrants get citizenship
The role of immigrant soldiers received widespread attention when Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 22, who made his way from Guatemala to California when he was 14, became the second American soldier to die in the conflict. Several dead non-citizen soldiers, including Gutierrez and Garibay, also have been granted citizenship posthumously by the Department of Homeland Security.
Lots of immigrants in the service
As the United States confronted massive military, political and humanitarian tasks in Iraq, the nation's armed forces relied on thousands of other "green-card soldiers.'' They are part of the 37,401 non-citizen soldiers serving in the U.S. armed forces - the highest number since the Vietnam War.
Fast track immigrants to get into the service with no guarantees
The Bush administration had established a fast track naturalization process for foreign recruits in July 2002 as part of the "war on terror." Instead of waiting three years before applying for citizenship, green-card holders in the armed forces who entered after September 11, 2001 could apply immediately for citizenship. Such offers are often granted in limited form during periods of "military hostilities". In July, Bush signed an executive order allowing immigrants to apply immediately after joining the military. Cardinal Roger Mahony, leader of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest, has urged Bush to go even further and grant automatic citizenship to immigrant soldiers fighting in Iraq. Fat chance, Bush wants immigrant soldiers, without any strings attached.
Although the Bush Executive Order contained no guarantees that citizen status would be granted or even expedited, the rumor that automatic citizenship was being granted for military service began to circulate in Latino communities both here and abroad. The number of permanent resident enlistees jumped from 300 a month before the fast track reform to 1,300 a month. Mexican nationals reportedly flooded consulates attempting to volunteer. Just a rumor was enough for many to show their desire for a part of the U.S. dream.
Why there are many immigrants applying for military service?
One reason is that many have no jobs or just lost their jobs, because of the economy. Some lost their jobs because of the "war on terror". Non-citizens can't get a security clearance. It's the same reason why thousands of people lost their jobs after 9/11 as baggage handlers and security screeners in U.S. airports, after a new law made it illegal for non-citizens (even those with papers) to hold those jobs. A judge later dismissed that measure as unconstitutional.
Some risk the chance of dying to get an education
Both citizen and non-citizen recruits most often enlist as a way to get an education, seduced by the recruiters' promise of technical training or money for college contingent upon an honorable discharge. For the permanent residents who found themselves in Iraq, their round-about-path to college carried them, from Latin America to the U.S. to Baghdad, al-Nasiriyah, and Mosul. Some of them will not be attending classes as they and their families had hoped. Instead they serve on the front lines.
The hunting ground for recruits
Alongside the Bush incentive, the Pentagon, just like liquor and cigarette companies, have learned to pander to the poor. It pays off. The poor are desperate for a way out of the ghetto the barrio. The Pentagon launched a massive publicity campaign targeting the Hispanic market. "$30,000 for college" claimed the glitzy ads although the fine print did not point out that very few veterans would ever see such amounts of money. Nor was it mentioned that many studies show that people who go directly to college earn more money over the length of a career than those who enter the military first. "Education" became the recruiter's buzzword because the Pentagon had learned from studies contracted out to the Rand Corporation and other think tanks that Latino and Latina recruits joined the military primarily in search of "civilian job transferability."
It's not an answer in the long run.
Very few jobs, however, transfer over, for most Latinos, the exception perhaps, is careers in automotive repair, and law enforcement. Small arms expertise and truck driving, however, do not translate well into civilian success. For a majority of Latinos, military service does not close the economic gaps separating the majority of Latinos from the rest of society. It actually widens those gaps.
They just wanted an education
Latino and Latina GIs are no different from other poor youth drawn into the web spun by military recruiters. Many have fallen those buzzwords "Education" and "Citizenship". It has been widely reported that former POW Jessica Lynch, the daughter of a poor family from Appalachia, joined because she wanted to be a teacher. According to his former mentor, the young man from Guatemala, José Gutiérrez, joined the Marines to get an education. Twenty-one year old Francisco Martinez Flores, killed when his tank fell into the Euphrates, enlisted so that he could go to college and become a stockbroker or an FBI agent, according to his friends (Betsy Streisand, "Latin Heroes," U.S. News and World Report, 4/14/03). In short, what motivated these young people to enlist was less the defense of "our freedom" or "honor" than it was simply to increase their access to a decent education and a better life, and for many, citizenship.
Some people just can't win!
"Due to national security and many other restrictions, non-citizen members of the military have only a small, select number of Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) to choose from when enlisting or re-enlisting. In all service branches, immigrants and non-citizens are over-represented in the field of infantry. They are most likely to be called first to the front lines. You can't handle our baggage but we'll let you handle point.
We will have grunts now instead of teachers or doctors.
So, young Latinos and Latinas are filling the lowest ranks of the military in the lowest-tech occupations. As they do so, the pipeline of Latino and Latina teachers, doctors, and other professionals continues to dry up, a fact that will have devastating consequences for their communities for decades to come. The barrios are bad now, in the future they are going to get worse.
Immigrant blood flows in the sand.
Immigrant blood has always been shed alongside their American counterparts. It now flows in the sands of the cradle of civilization, bound by the ancient waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. What can we say of the young Latinos who sacrifice their lives in Iraq? That they fought without knowing their enemy, played their role as pawns in a geopolitical chess game devised by an arrogant President, and died simply trying to get an education; trying to have a fair shot at the American Dream that has eluded the vast majority of Latinos for over a century and a half; dying as soldiers who just wanted to be students and citizens.
Look on the bright side. You might be an American citizen, after you're dead.
For Latinas and Latinos, the bestowal of posthumous citizenship is bitterly ironic. Do Mexican, Puerto Ricans, or Central American immigrants have to die to win the approval of the majority of American society? So, what is being said is "The only honorable immigrant is a dead immigrant soldier?" Or as an old Chicano ballad from the Viet Nam war put it: "Now should a man/Should he have to kill/In order to live/Like a human being/ In this country?" If Latinos were good enough for military service (so much so that the military academies continue to employ affirmative action policies), why were they not good enough to receive a decent education? Finally, how could one reconcile the fact that foreign nationals from Latin America were fighting with the U.S. military in Iraq at the same time that armed vigilante "ranchers" hunted Mexican workers along the Mexico-Arizona border for sport, just like animals?
The next time you see an immigrant cleaning your toilets, mopping your floors, making up your beds, or cooking your food, ask yourself could they have a loved one fighting for you? Are the people you see deserving of your contempt?
Happy Cinco de Mayo.
Sources cited:
Jim Capel, the New York chief of staff to Representative Charles Rangel
Betsy Streisand, "Latin Heroes," U.S. News and World Report, 4/14/03
The Miami Herald.
Brad Heath / The Detroit News
Pilar Marrero,
Pacific News Service, Apr 11, 2003
Los Angeles Officials Urge Immediate Citizenship for Immigrants in US Military
Mike O'Sullivan Los Angeles
Jorge Mariscal Viet Nam veteran
I read an article about the number of steps Riayan Tejeda took from his front door to the military recruiter's office. It was 206 steps from his Washington Heights apartment home. A violent drug trade dominated his Dominican neighborhood when Riayan was 14 . Two years later, the Heights erupted in several days of violence after a police shooting. In 206 steps he went from this hard knock life as a immigrant kid to become a U.S. Marine. He told his mother what he had done, and why: "You just watch me. I'm going to make something of my life."
Baghdad had collapsed, the statues of Hussein were toppled, and Bush was said to be giddy. Then, on April 11, in the messy mop-up after the assault on Baghdad, Sergeant Tejeda was killed in a firefight with some straggling Hussein loyalists. He was 26 years old, Riayan Tejeda almost made it. Just a couple of weeks before, Riayan's father took those same 203 steps to come into the recruiting office to ask the recruiting sergeant on behalf of Riayan's worried mother, if he heard from his child? Where was his child? When would his child be coming home? Of course, neither man knew that Riayan was alive at the time, but he would soon die, in Baghdad. Did the recruiter take those 203 steps to get back to his parents with the news of his death? I believe Riayan took those 203 steps to get a better life.
Some ask, why would a Dominican die for the United States? Was the United States using the promise of expedited citizenship as a lure to bolster its front lines? A woman who gave her name only as Celeste paused in front of the sidewalk memorial to Sergeant Tejeda, muttered in Spanish that "he died for a country that wasn't even his," then she moved on.
Sergeant Tejeda served for more than eight years in the Marines, but was never able to became an American citizen. He was one of more than 37,000 legal permanent residents serving in the armed forces, according to the Defense Department, and one of many to be wounded or die during the invasion of this unjust Iraqi war. Jim Capel, the New York chief of staff to Representative Charles Rangel, whose Congressional district includes Washington Heights. Mr. Capel said that Mr. Rangel would seek citizenship for the sergeant posthumously if his family desired it, but that so far no discussions with the family had taken place. Little was said about the fact that posthumous citizenship was a purely symbolic gesture with no rights or privileges accruing to the deceased person's family (Last week, Representative Darrell Issa (R-Ca) proposed automatic citizenship for the surviving spouse and children of non-citizen soldiers killed in battle and given posthumous citizenship).
More dead immigrants get citizenship
The role of immigrant soldiers received widespread attention when Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 22, who made his way from Guatemala to California when he was 14, became the second American soldier to die in the conflict. Several dead non-citizen soldiers, including Gutierrez and Garibay, also have been granted citizenship posthumously by the Department of Homeland Security.
Lots of immigrants in the service
As the United States confronted massive military, political and humanitarian tasks in Iraq, the nation's armed forces relied on thousands of other "green-card soldiers.'' They are part of the 37,401 non-citizen soldiers serving in the U.S. armed forces - the highest number since the Vietnam War.
Fast track immigrants to get into the service with no guarantees
The Bush administration had established a fast track naturalization process for foreign recruits in July 2002 as part of the "war on terror." Instead of waiting three years before applying for citizenship, green-card holders in the armed forces who entered after September 11, 2001 could apply immediately for citizenship. Such offers are often granted in limited form during periods of "military hostilities". In July, Bush signed an executive order allowing immigrants to apply immediately after joining the military. Cardinal Roger Mahony, leader of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest, has urged Bush to go even further and grant automatic citizenship to immigrant soldiers fighting in Iraq. Fat chance, Bush wants immigrant soldiers, without any strings attached.
Although the Bush Executive Order contained no guarantees that citizen status would be granted or even expedited, the rumor that automatic citizenship was being granted for military service began to circulate in Latino communities both here and abroad. The number of permanent resident enlistees jumped from 300 a month before the fast track reform to 1,300 a month. Mexican nationals reportedly flooded consulates attempting to volunteer. Just a rumor was enough for many to show their desire for a part of the U.S. dream.
Why there are many immigrants applying for military service?
One reason is that many have no jobs or just lost their jobs, because of the economy. Some lost their jobs because of the "war on terror". Non-citizens can't get a security clearance. It's the same reason why thousands of people lost their jobs after 9/11 as baggage handlers and security screeners in U.S. airports, after a new law made it illegal for non-citizens (even those with papers) to hold those jobs. A judge later dismissed that measure as unconstitutional.
Some risk the chance of dying to get an education
Both citizen and non-citizen recruits most often enlist as a way to get an education, seduced by the recruiters' promise of technical training or money for college contingent upon an honorable discharge. For the permanent residents who found themselves in Iraq, their round-about-path to college carried them, from Latin America to the U.S. to Baghdad, al-Nasiriyah, and Mosul. Some of them will not be attending classes as they and their families had hoped. Instead they serve on the front lines.
The hunting ground for recruits
Alongside the Bush incentive, the Pentagon, just like liquor and cigarette companies, have learned to pander to the poor. It pays off. The poor are desperate for a way out of the ghetto the barrio. The Pentagon launched a massive publicity campaign targeting the Hispanic market. "$30,000 for college" claimed the glitzy ads although the fine print did not point out that very few veterans would ever see such amounts of money. Nor was it mentioned that many studies show that people who go directly to college earn more money over the length of a career than those who enter the military first. "Education" became the recruiter's buzzword because the Pentagon had learned from studies contracted out to the Rand Corporation and other think tanks that Latino and Latina recruits joined the military primarily in search of "civilian job transferability."
It's not an answer in the long run.
Very few jobs, however, transfer over, for most Latinos, the exception perhaps, is careers in automotive repair, and law enforcement. Small arms expertise and truck driving, however, do not translate well into civilian success. For a majority of Latinos, military service does not close the economic gaps separating the majority of Latinos from the rest of society. It actually widens those gaps.
They just wanted an education
Latino and Latina GIs are no different from other poor youth drawn into the web spun by military recruiters. Many have fallen those buzzwords "Education" and "Citizenship". It has been widely reported that former POW Jessica Lynch, the daughter of a poor family from Appalachia, joined because she wanted to be a teacher. According to his former mentor, the young man from Guatemala, José Gutiérrez, joined the Marines to get an education. Twenty-one year old Francisco Martinez Flores, killed when his tank fell into the Euphrates, enlisted so that he could go to college and become a stockbroker or an FBI agent, according to his friends (Betsy Streisand, "Latin Heroes," U.S. News and World Report, 4/14/03). In short, what motivated these young people to enlist was less the defense of "our freedom" or "honor" than it was simply to increase their access to a decent education and a better life, and for many, citizenship.
Some people just can't win!
"Due to national security and many other restrictions, non-citizen members of the military have only a small, select number of Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) to choose from when enlisting or re-enlisting. In all service branches, immigrants and non-citizens are over-represented in the field of infantry. They are most likely to be called first to the front lines. You can't handle our baggage but we'll let you handle point.
We will have grunts now instead of teachers or doctors.
So, young Latinos and Latinas are filling the lowest ranks of the military in the lowest-tech occupations. As they do so, the pipeline of Latino and Latina teachers, doctors, and other professionals continues to dry up, a fact that will have devastating consequences for their communities for decades to come. The barrios are bad now, in the future they are going to get worse.
Immigrant blood flows in the sand.
Immigrant blood has always been shed alongside their American counterparts. It now flows in the sands of the cradle of civilization, bound by the ancient waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. What can we say of the young Latinos who sacrifice their lives in Iraq? That they fought without knowing their enemy, played their role as pawns in a geopolitical chess game devised by an arrogant President, and died simply trying to get an education; trying to have a fair shot at the American Dream that has eluded the vast majority of Latinos for over a century and a half; dying as soldiers who just wanted to be students and citizens.
Look on the bright side. You might be an American citizen, after you're dead.
For Latinas and Latinos, the bestowal of posthumous citizenship is bitterly ironic. Do Mexican, Puerto Ricans, or Central American immigrants have to die to win the approval of the majority of American society? So, what is being said is "The only honorable immigrant is a dead immigrant soldier?" Or as an old Chicano ballad from the Viet Nam war put it: "Now should a man/Should he have to kill/In order to live/Like a human being/ In this country?" If Latinos were good enough for military service (so much so that the military academies continue to employ affirmative action policies), why were they not good enough to receive a decent education? Finally, how could one reconcile the fact that foreign nationals from Latin America were fighting with the U.S. military in Iraq at the same time that armed vigilante "ranchers" hunted Mexican workers along the Mexico-Arizona border for sport, just like animals?
The next time you see an immigrant cleaning your toilets, mopping your floors, making up your beds, or cooking your food, ask yourself could they have a loved one fighting for you? Are the people you see deserving of your contempt?
Happy Cinco de Mayo.
Sources cited:
Jim Capel, the New York chief of staff to Representative Charles Rangel
Betsy Streisand, "Latin Heroes," U.S. News and World Report, 4/14/03
The Miami Herald.
Brad Heath / The Detroit News
Pilar Marrero,
Pacific News Service, Apr 11, 2003
Los Angeles Officials Urge Immediate Citizenship for Immigrants in US Military
Mike O'Sullivan Los Angeles
Jorge Mariscal Viet Nam veteran
# posted by Thomas @ 12:53 AM 
