Senator Tammy Duckworth advocates for noncitizens in military

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) called on Congress to make it easier for immigrant veterans to gain U.S. citizenship for their service, as well as pass legislation to aid those who have been deported under a complicated system she said often penalizes rather than protects. Duckworth, a veteran of the Iraq War and a Purple Heart recipient, spoke before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Safety on Wednesday June 23 shortly after she released a report detailing the convoluted process noncitizen veterans face after their service.  (Story by HuffPo here.)

Immigrants have enlisted in the American military for centuries and have long been rewarded with an expedited pathway to citizenship for their service. However, those programs have been narrowed or eliminated in recent years, resulting in some veterans’ deportation. For more context, see Margaret Stock’s prior Congressional testimony, legal representation, and practitioner handbook on the subject for the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association. I’ve also written about the trend of citizenship denials in the military and citizenship delays in the general context of naturalization, pointing out the implications for voting rights of future citizens.

MHC