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The GOP’s schizophrenia on allowing illegal immigrants to serve in the military
Hotair ^ | 05/15/2015 | Noah Rothman

Posted on 05/15/2015 10:31:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

The average citizen watching the Republicans work out an internal conflict over whether non-citizens should be provided with legal status if they serve in the U.S. military must be pretty confused by now.

In April, over a dozen House Republicans introduced a bill that would allow the children of illegal immigrants brought into the U.S. by their parents to obtain legal residency by serving in uniform. A similar measure was introduced in the last Congress and was supposed to be included in an annual defense appropriations measure, but House GOP leadership blocked the move.

The new bill would extend the award of U.S. legal residency to the illegal immigrants already serving since the military began accepting undocumented recruits in September of last year. This year’s defense bill did include the amendment that would extend legal status to illegal immigrant servicemen and women, but the move split the GOP in the House.

On Thursday, an amendment that would scrap that provision was introduced by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL). “In a letter to fellow lawmakers earlier Thursday, Brooks argued the provision was adopted during the ‘early morning, sleep-deprived portion’ of the markup and didn’t belong in the bill” The Hill reported.

“This Congress should support and represent Americans by voting to stop military service opportunities from being taken from struggling American families in order to give them to illegal aliens,” Brooks argued. This is not rhetoric. In 2014, the Armed Forces turned away 80 percent of aspiring applicants as the military rapidly contracts.

By a vote of 221 to 202, and even with 20 Republicans joining a united House Democratic caucus in support of this measure, the amendment that would have provided legal status to illegal immigrant veterans was stripped from the defense bill.

Is this good politics for the GOP? While it’s always a black mark for any party to appear at war with itself, the polls on this issue paint a complicated picture. While a YouGov poll from October of last year found 42 percent were opposed to allowing illegal immigrants to serve in uniform compared to 37 percent who supported it, the vast majority of respondents – 56 percent – said that those who do serve should receive legal status for doing so. Support for legal status for illegal immigrant veterans included 67 percent of self-described Democratic respondents, 55 percent of independents, and a plurality – 43 to 40 percent – of self-identified Republicans.

While that suggests that the GOP’s decision to block legal status for undocumented veterans is popular, it’s not clear if it is as popular as it might have been just a few months ago. A February, 2013 CBS News Poll found “60 percent of Republicans, and 81 percent of Democrats, favor a path to citizenship for those who are under 30, were brought to the U.S. as children, have no criminal record and obtain either two years of college or military service.”

Regardless of whether providing illegal immigrants who serve in the armed forces a pathway to legal status is wildly popular or just really popular, it should be clear to all observers that the decision by a majority of the House GOP to block this measure is not going to be warmly greeted by the general public.

Don’t expect Hillary Clinton to miss an opportunity to present herself as a champion for a broadly popular liberal priority that is being blocked by the Republican members of an unpopular Congress. “If these courageous young men and women want to serve, they should be honored and celebrated, not discriminated against,” Amanda Renteria, Clinton’s national political director, said in a statement. “Hillary Clinton is committed to comprehensive immigration reform to strengthen families and our country. While we keep up the pressure for comprehensive action, allowing Dreamers to serve in the military is the right step forward.”

On this issue, it’s likely that the majority of the voting public will side with Clinton. Providing a pathway to legal status for the handful of illegal immigrants who would risk their lives in service to their adopted homeland enjoys the public’s support, and Republicans are courting a backlash by blocking that provision.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: gop; illegals; military
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Well, the French have their Foreign Legion, how did that work out for their military?
1 posted on 05/15/2015 10:31:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

They look schizo the way a double agent can appear schizo.


2 posted on 05/15/2015 10:33:24 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: SeekAndFind

They look schizo the way a double agent can appear schizo.

I.e. when people allow things to happen that you would not expect them to allow, their motives may not be what you think they are.

We have a uniparty. When one understands that, the antics of the GOPe make total sense. Occam’s razor and all that.


3 posted on 05/15/2015 10:34:36 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Dutch also had their Royal Netherlands East Indies Army ( AKA KNIL ).

The KNIL recruited Dutch volunteers and foreign mercenaries of several nationalities.

The foreign troops consisted of Flemish, German, Swiss, and French volunteers.

However, Walloons, Arabs, and nationals of both the United Kingdom and United States were forbidden from serving.

Other foreigners who could not prove fluency in either Dutch or German were also not accepted for service.


4 posted on 05/15/2015 10:35:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Spain had her Spanish Legion.

The unit, which was founded as the Spanish equivalent of the French Foreign Legion, was known as the Tercio de Extranjeros (”Foreigners Regiment”).

However in practice it recruited almost exclusively Spaniards and Spanish expatriates from Spanish-speaking nations.


5 posted on 05/15/2015 10:36:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: cuban leaf

Israel had a unit called the Mahal, where both Jewish and non-Jewish volunteers were allowed to migrate to Israel to fight in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War including Aliyah Bet.

About 4,000 volunteers from all over the world came to fight on the Israeli side.

Mahal made up a small fraction of the Israeli forces, except for the Air Force, where they were dominant.

Mahal was disbanded after the war, and most volunteers left Israel. Some, however, made their immigration permanent and became Israeli citizens.


6 posted on 05/15/2015 10:38:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I have no confidence in the GOP. They’re frauds and traitors.


7 posted on 05/15/2015 10:39:45 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper (And yet...we continue to tolerate this crap...)
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To: SeekAndFind

You go, Mo: that’s my Congress-critter.

Now if I can just get him to double-down and get a rollback of these out-of-control worker visas... then we’ll be starting to get somewhere.


8 posted on 05/15/2015 10:40:52 AM PDT by alancarp
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To: SeekAndFind

This is just leftist agitprop to try to herd us in the direction they want us to go.

While on the surface it might seem like a reasonable quid pro quo, why would we want a professional military populated by people with a grudge against us, loyal to another nation?

Somehow I just don’t think it makes a lotta sense to give an M-249 to a hard faced guy looking to get even with Los Gringos.


9 posted on 05/15/2015 10:42:04 AM PDT by Regulator
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To: Regulator

” why would we want a professional military populated by people with a grudge against us, loyal to another nation?”

Plus, do you want to be in a foxhole with some fool who speaks no English ?


10 posted on 05/15/2015 10:44:45 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) (GOPe is that easy to read))
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To: SeekAndFind

Famous Walloon Peter Minuit, bought Manhattan for 24 dollars.

11 posted on 05/15/2015 10:48:13 AM PDT by smoothsailing
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To: stephenjohnbanker

"I don't want to get my head shot off in some far away land because you don't habla, comprende?"

12 posted on 05/15/2015 10:48:52 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: SeekAndFind
HELL, we got an ILLEGAL ALIEN who HATES the United States, in the3 Oval Office.
This is WHY you DO NOT ALLOW ILLEGALS INTO THE COUNTRY !
13 posted on 05/15/2015 10:50:29 AM PDT by Yosemitest (It's Simple ! Fight, ... or Die !)
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To: SeekAndFind

We already have females taking male slots in the military, and now we want criminal illegal foreigners taking even more of those slots?


14 posted on 05/15/2015 10:57:06 AM PDT by ansel12
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To: SeekAndFind

The US government had a policy in place, by which a LEGAL immigrant, with intent to become a citizen, could serve in the US military for a period of five years, and this would qualify as “residency” for purposes of naturalization, even though the applicant served outside US boundaries for the most of the duration. Extending this opportunity to various non-legal or extra-legal residents was not considered until very recently in this nation’s history.

Of course, that territory on the North American continent once known as “the United States of America” is no longer held to this standard.


15 posted on 05/15/2015 10:58:24 AM PDT by alloysteel ("Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement..." Ronald Reagan)
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To: SeekAndFind

Obozo’s development of his personal SA continues.

Paging Ernst Rohm...paging Ernst Rohm. Call your office!

Think Germany, 1932!
We’re getting close, people! Very, very close!!
And here’s some advice for those who are aiding obozo in his grab for total power. Search for ERNST ROHM. It was he who organized and ran the Brown Shirts that brought Hitler to power. But when his usefulness to Hitler ended, so did Rohm’s life – in a prison cell – with a bullet to the brain BECAUSE, IN ADDITION TO BECOMING TOO OBVIOUSLY BRUTAL AT THAT EARLY STAGE OF HIS RISE, HITLER VIEWED HIM AS A POTENTIAL RIVAL!
YOU MORONS WHO THINK YOU’LL BE THE PRINCES IN THE NEW ORDER ARE ENGAGED IN A PERVERSE FORM OF MENTAL MASTURBATION AND MIGHT WANT TO RETHINK THAT!


16 posted on 05/15/2015 10:58:31 AM PDT by Dick Bachert (This entire "administration" has been a series of Reischstag Fires. We know how that turned out!)
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To: SeekAndFind

I am about halfway through the amazing new Bernard Cornwall non-fiction book, “WATERLOO; The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles.” Prior to readig it I had not known that the British Army fielded unit of expatriate German personnel, The King’s German Legion (KGL). They fought with distinction during the Peninsular Campaign and distinguished themselves at Waterloo with a herioc stand at the farmhouse at La Haye Sainte. So foreign legion can work, at least when they are German.


17 posted on 05/15/2015 10:58:41 AM PDT by atomic_dog
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To: dfwgator

Yeah....


18 posted on 05/15/2015 11:00:24 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) (GOPe is that easy to read))
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To: SeekAndFind

They wouldn’t be American soldiers, they would be soldiers of fortune.


19 posted on 05/15/2015 11:08:26 AM PDT by PoloSec ( Believe the Gospel: how that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again)
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To: atomic_dog
So foreign legion can work, at least when they are German

Uh, that didn't work out so well for the Hessian mercenaries working for an earlier King of England...

20 posted on 05/15/2015 11:27:47 AM PDT by Regulator
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