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 years 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 its 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 GOPs decision to block legal status for undocumented veterans is popular, its 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.
Dont 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, Clintons 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, its 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 publics support, and Republicans are courting a backlash by blocking that provision.
They look schizo the way a double agent can appear schizo.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I have no confidence in the GOP. They’re frauds and traitors.
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.
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.
” 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 ?
Famous Walloon Peter Minuit, bought Manhattan for 24 dollars.
"I don't want to get my head shot off in some far away land because you don't habla, comprende?"
We already have females taking male slots in the military, and now we want criminal illegal foreigners taking even more of those slots?
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.
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!
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.
Yeah....
They wouldn’t be American soldiers, they would be soldiers of fortune.
Uh, that didn't work out so well for the Hessian mercenaries working for an earlier King of England...
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