Immigrants of the Day: Immigrant Veterans

While we today pay tribute to all veterans who have given so much to this country, we should note the important contributions of immigrants to protect our freedom. Congressman Raul Grijvalva recently gave a speech on “Recognizing the contributions of immigrant Veterans,” which seemed appropriate for today.

Here is a passage from a recent MSNBC story about the delays in processing citizenship paper work for immigrant vets:

Throughout the history of the U.S., immigrants have served in the armed forces, often in disproportionately larger numbers than their percentage of the general population. During the Civil War, entire regiments were composed of recently-arrived foreigners, mostly Germans and Irish. And in the World War II, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, composed almost completely of Japanese-Americans who had been classified as enemy aliens, taken from their homes and interned in camps, became the Army’s most highly decorated unit.

KJ