Global Policy Forum

By Tessie Borden

The U.S. soldiers had two homelands: one of their birth and one of their choosing. Jose Antonio Gutierrez, 22, and Jose Angel Garibay, 21, weren't born in the United States. Both Marines were killed in the first days of a war with Iraq that so far has claimed at least 76 coalition casualties. Gutierrez, originally from Guatemala, and Garibay, from Mexico, were part of a special group of soldiers: those serving the United States as legal residents but not yet as U.S. citizens.

"For him, his country was Mexico, but also the United States," said Crystal Garibay of Costa Mesa, Calif., sister of Jose Angel. "He grew up here, and he said this country had given him everything." On Wednesday, the United States gave him one last thing. With the help of family and fellow Marines, Garibay, as well as Gutierrez became American citizens posthumously.

As of last July, 30,972 active military personnel were non-citizens, according to the latest available U.S. Department of Defense figures. That's just more than 2 percent of the country's active military force. But non-citizen numbers are growing. In 1995, they made up 3 percent of new recruits in all the armed forces. In 2001, they were 4 percent. Some of these enlistees see a military career as a secure job that can help them pay for college and lead to a better life. Since last year, these soldiers also have found a faster route to citizenship in the military.

Criticism from 2 sides

But anti-immigration groups, whose concerns have become more prominent since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, question the loyalties of these soldiers, even as a Pew Hispanic Center report released last week found they face combat more often, relative to their numbers in the military, than soldiers of other ethnicities. California Latino groups also complain that armed-forces recruiters target Hispanic students, even if they are undocumented, for enlistment.

"I'm totally against joining the military as a way out," said Carlos Montes, director of Latinos Against the War With Iraq. "I say go to college and get a good job."

Non-citizens may join the military only if they are legal permanent residents, recruiters said. Non-citizen soldiers who want to re-enlist must have become citizens during their first tour of duty.

In the first days of the war in Iraq, rumors spread in Mexican communities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border that undocumented immigrants who enlisted could get citizenship. Jim Dickmeyer, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, said officials have been fielding hundreds of calls and turning away about 15 people a day who show up at the embassy believing the rumors.

An executive order signed last July by President Bush does expedite citizenship for military personnel. The order allows those honorably discharged since Sept. 11, 2001, or currently in the service to waive the normal three years they must wait before applying for citizenship. But some anti-immigration groups have questioned allowing non-citizens to serve, especially those, like Mexicans, whose country allows them to retain the nationality of their birth country even after becoming U.S. citizens. Project USA, which advocates a temporary moratorium on all immigration until security and enforcement of immigration rules improves, touched on the issue in a recent e-newsletter, saying it raises the "knotty question of dual loyalty."

Dual citizenship issues

Project USA Director Craig Nelsen said dual nationalities do not fit with what the military requires of its personnel. "I think the citizenship oath makes it explicit that to be American you must renounce all other allegiances," he said. "We think that . . . dual citizenship is a violation of that oath."

Nelsen said he sympathizes with the families of Gutierrez and Garibay and others who served and died as non-citizens. But he believes the existing system encourages illegal immigrants to put their lives on the line not once, but twice. "If we're telling people to go ahead and attempt this dangerous crossing and we'll actually provide you with citizenship and a career in the military, that's not acceptable," he said.

Others believe the military actually targets minorities, among them Latinos, for recruitment because their socioeconomic situation makes them more vulnerable. Montes, who is from Los Angeles, said schools with high minority populations, including undocumented students, get more recruiter visits.

"The latest big thing is the increase in recruiting of the students," he said. "Parents are saying they get calls from people that ask them to convince their kids to enlist."

The Pew study found that Hispanics in the military are relatively underrepresented compared with their numbers in the eligible civilian workforce but that they are overrepresented in combat ranks. Although they make up 9.49 percent of the enlisted personnel, they make up 17.74 percent of those who most directly handle guns. Only Whites have a higher percentage, the study found.

Montes said he is angered by the situation. "It's a racist tactic to take our young people and have them go fight a war," he said.

2 odysseys

A better life was what Gutierrez sought when he left his native Guatemala at age 11, hopping trains across Mexico and crossing the southern U.S. border to arrive in the Los Angeles area, where Nora and Marcelo Mosquera, an Ecuadorean couple, adopted him. His sister, Engracia Gutierrez, who stayed behind, said her brother only made it through the third grade before he left. But he had big dreams.

"He wanted to be an architect, then a soccer player," Engracia said. "Later on, he wanted to become a great soldier."

So a year ago, Jose enlisted in the Marines. "In a letter, he told me that the government was going to help him realize his dreams," Engracia said.

He was based at Camp Pendleton near San Diego. He telephoned Engracia each weekend and sent her money when he could. Jose told her in December that he was shipping out to the Persian Gulf. According to a U.S. military spokesman, Jose died March 21 in a firefight near Umm Qasr, in southern Iraq.

"One cannot expect anything good from those things," Engracia said of the war. "It's bad. I am a lover of peace and, to me, war leaves mourning in the heart."

Garibay also crossed illegally into the United States, in his mother's arms, at the age of 1. He grew up in Costa Mesa, where he was on his high school football team. His mother, Simona, worked as a housekeeper. He also had several aunts and uncles to help care for him, said his grandfather Clemente Garibay, who lives in Charco Azul, in Garibay's home state of Jalisco. Clemente said he saw his grandson only once, when he came to visit at age 9. After that, "I only knew him from his picture," he said.

Jose Angel joined the Marines three years after high school graduation and shipped out to Kuwait in January. He was killed March 23 in heavy fighting near Nasiriyah, Iraq. Crystal said her brother was proud to be a Marine and had dreamed of the military from the time he was small. But she wasn't happy to hear he had joined the service.

"I never accepted it," she said. "I believed that as soon as he entered they'd send him to war."

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.