Families of Immigrant Soldiers at Risk

The International Herald Tribune reports that about 35,000 legal immigrants without citizenship are now serving in the military, and nearly 34,000 other service members have taken the citizenship oath since 2001. That means when immigrant soldiers ship off to Iraq, they may carry with them a worry their American-born counterparts are less likely to share: that their family members might be deported while they are away.

“Every base has immigration problems,” said Margaret Stock, an Army reservist and immigration attorney teaching at United States Military Academy at West Point. “The government they’re fighting for is the same government that’s trying to deport their families.” Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Eduardo Gonzalez is a citizen whose wife entered the country illegally from Guatemala when she was 5 years old. She is now in deportation proceedings. “If I’m willing to die for the United States, why can’t I just be allowed to be with my family?” Gonzalez asked.   Stock said. “Someone at the top needs to decide which is most important — to keep soldiers’ families together, because we know it’s important for morale, or break them up in the interest of enforcing immigration law.”   “We give relief to soldiers from everything else — from oppressive loans, from a landlord that’s trying to evict them while they’re deployed,” Stock said. “Someone at the top needs to decide which is most important — to keep soldiers’ families together, because we know it’s important for morale, or break them up in the interest of enforcing immigration law.”

Yaderlin Jimenez was an illegal immigrant facing deportation. Her husband, a U.S. citizen and soldier, could not help her because he was missing after an insurgent attack in Iraq. His capture drew national attention to his wife’s deportation case, prompting Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to ask immigration officials to halt the proceedings.

KJ