“I have no problem with an alien who serves a *full* hitch in the Armed Forces,*honorably*,getting a fast track to citizenship....but no member of his/her family (except spouse and kids) would be able to join him....*ever*.”
Then you have to change the current law, which allows for family-based “chain migration”.
In truth, the chain migration has been a huge source of our immigration woes. Every small hole (like your above example) becomes a big loophole. The best immigrants are crowded out by the unlimited number of requests for family members.
We have over a million immigrants per year, vast majority of them are in the family-based ‘chain migration category. If we eliminated that we could have a lot more slots for employer based immigration, and less opportunity/advantage from illegal immigration.
In order to join the military, the person has to have permanent resident status, i.e., be here legally. Therefore, they can sponsor their spouse and children and others even without citizenship. Once a person is a citizen, I see no way legally to prevent them from sponsoring other relatives under the existing immigration laws, i.e., chain migration. You must change it for everyone, not just those who served in the military.
Registered Aliens who serve in the US military are already eligible for American citizenship..
Thats what a Green Card is...The so called “path to citizenship”...
A Green Card holder will become an American citizen with or without military service...
The only difference is 3 years till citizenship with military service ...or 5 years without..