The Immigrant Outrage Rage Machine Rages

By Shawn B

208 Republicans said that immigrants who served in the US military should not become Americans. Of course, on the face of it, they would be right. I’d bet that’s all they’re counting on from the simpletons they ride on who subsequently power their rage machine. The vote was a 220 to 208 pass in the House and was submitted to the Senate on 7 Dec 2022.

But they are disingenuous (who would have thought?).

The text of the bill doesn’t seem to be referencing Legal Permanent Residents (LPR). In fact, Green Card holders are often  generalized under the citizen banner to reference the category of persons legally permitted to live and work in the USA. LPRs can legally join the military and are already entitled to file for citizenship, so it would be pointless for the bill to be talking about them. 

You do not have to be a U.S. citizen to enlist in the military but have fewer options. 
If you are not a U.S. citizen, you must: Have a permanent resident card, also known as a Green Card. 
Join the Military | USAGov https://www.usa.gov › join-military

The non-citizens referenced are persons who have no residency status or are otherwise unauthorized to work here. In this case, there’s no reason they would be allowed or even required to serve in the first place. If LPR is a minimum requirement, how do they join without even meeting the minimum?  That’s not so puzzling. The answer is they don’t – they’re not allowed to – not in modern times.

What the bill is talking about are veterans of wars past – people who’ve (mostly) served long ago. I wasn’t around then, but I’m sure the rules might have been different then. It might have perhaps been easier for a non-LPR person to slip through the system with uncaught nuances.

So, for whatever reason, these veterans got in, they served our great nation and then they got out. In any case, if that person somehow got in the military due to bureaucratic flaws and ended up serving, then I would agree they should have benefits. They did their time, they served when many Americans sought to avoid conscription, they defended our freedoms, they protected our republic, they secured the empire. Tell me why, now, should they be denied the very freedom they guaranteed us with their heroic actions? Why should they deserve less than anyone else who did the same as them or even those who did less than them?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here advocating for rewarding bad behavior, but as rational humans, we have a duty to balance facts, to balance risks vs rewards, to balance loss vs gain. Arguable, in almost every case, our military – regardless of their origin – have benefited our republic, and these veterans are not just service members, but stewards of our freedom. They deserve no less honor for their actions than a corrupt politician, many of whom have never served, who grifts off campaign donations, who consistently fails to deliver on promises, and then proceeds to live off their taxpayer funded pensions in perpetuity.

Freedom isn’t free, and it certainly isn’t cheap, so they paid part of that price and sacrificed for what we enjoy today. They shouldn’t be penalized for a broken system that somehow worked in their favor.