Should We Support the Dream Act? by Marti Hiken

Fwd: Should We Support the Dream Act? by Marti Hiken [edited]

[On Friday, July 13th, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) announced that
this week he, Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) will
introduce the DREAM Act as an amendment to H.R. 1585, the Department
of Defense authorization bill, which is now being debated in the Senate.]
____________________________________________

Should We Support the Dream Act?
Marti Hiken


There are currently 750,000 undocumented residents of military age.
There are 35,000 non-citizens in the U.S. military.
280,000 immigrants between the ages of 18-24 years would qualify for
the Dream Act.
8,000 join the military each year to take advantage of an accelerated
path to
citizenship.
4,000 immigrants in uniform became citizens in 2005, compared to 750
in 2001.

-----------------------

>
> As a policy, the NLG Military Law Task Force (MLTF) does not
> support coercive measures whether it be through military bonuses,
> educational programs, career opportunities, non-incarceration (jail
> or the military), citizenship, or citizenship speed-ups, etc., that
> induce enlistment, re-enlistment, or continued service in the armed
> forces of the United States.
>

There are several reasons for this:

>
> 1) Members of the Armed Forces are currently under Stop Loss,
> which means that they are indentured servants, serve at the whim of
> the President of the United States, and can be forced to remain the
> rest of their lives under military control. If soldiers think they
> will be eligible to walk away from the military after two years,
> they are wrong. (Current military contracts run for eight years,
> but can be extended far beyond that.)
>
> 2) Maintaining "Good Moral Character," especially in the military,
> translates into the possible need to repress, torture, and imprison
> -- all for the purpose of guaranteeing that the rich can trod on
> the poor and wage wars without any fear of retribution and/or
> control by any other peoples of the world.
>
> In this matter, it is not the people who will decide good moral
> character, it is both the Departments of Homeland Security and
> Defense.
>
> 3) Refusing to serve "honorably" in the U.S. military results in
> service members going AWOL or UA. In past wars, resistance to the
> U.S. military has meant fraggings, turning the guns around, and a
> heavy level of anti-war activity, which the government would not
> translate as "good moral character." The purpose of the MLTF is to
> defend the rights of service members to resist illegal wars,
> immoral laws, torture, etc. The Dream Bill will further erode the
> rights of those resisting brutal wars and play into the
> government's desire to have the necessary troops available for its
> imperialistic wars. The Dream Bill will lead to one segment of the
> movement sacrificing the other for an easier and quicker citizenship.
>
> The Dream Act's primary purpose is to make a pool of those seeking
> citizenship into a pool of tens of thousands of recruitable
> soldiers doing the bidding of the U.S. government. It is, in fact,
> an easier way to recruit than hiring foreign and American civilian
> private mercenaries. As the recruits go down in the U.S., however,
> don't also expect the recruitment of those in El Salvador, Chile,
> Philippines, and wherever else to go down.
>
> The current draft is an economic one: it is a poverty draft. The
> Dream Act makes it all a little easier for the Department of
> Defense to find the cannon fodder to eat up. The soldiers will
> continue to come from the ranks of the poor.
>
>
> _________________________________________________
> For more information on the Act, google the following:
http://nilc.org/immlawpolicy/DREAM/index.htm


> From the DREAM ACT:
>


> During the 6-year period, the student would be required to
> graduate from a 2-year college, complete at least 2 years towards a
> 4-year degree, or serve in the U.S. military for at least 2 years.
> Permanent residence would be granted at the end of the 6-year
> period if the student has met these requirements and has continued
> to maintain good moral character.
>
>
> 2. Served in the U.S. armed forces for at least 2 years.
>
> The 6-year time period for meeting these requirements would be
> extendable upon a showing of good cause, and the Dept. of Homeland
> Security would be empowered to waive the requirements altogether if
> compelling reasons such as disability prevent their completion and
> if removal of the student would result in exceptional and extremely
> unusual hardship to the student, or to the student's spouse, parent
> or child.
=============================================================

FYI -

______________________________
MILITARY LAW TASK FORCE
National Lawyers Guild
www.nlgmltf.org

Marguerite Hiken, co-chair
318 Ortega Street
San Francisco, CA 94122
415-566-3732
mlhiken@...

Kathleen Gilberd, co-chair
1168 Union Street, Ste. 302
San Diego, CA 92101
619-233-1701
KathleenGilberd@...