This Memorial Day, America’s Voice and America’s Voice Education Fund would like to take time to honor our men and women in uniform. We’d also like to congratulate our military DREAMers, who won a big victory this week when the Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senator Blumenthal’s amendment 12, which would allow DREAMers to serve in the military and put those who serve on the path to citizenship.
We know so many great DREAMers who want to join the armed services and give back to their country–but are barred from doing so due to current immigration laws. There’s Cesar Vargas, an undocumented lawyer from New York and now the executive director of the DREAM Action Coalition, who wants to be a Marine Officer. There’s Ivan Rosales, who has two brothers in the army and wants to be a doctor in the military. There’s Marisol Camacho, who dreams of joining the Navy and becoming a nurse. There are, as Cesar says, tens of thousands of DREAMers just waiting for their chance to enlist. Visit www.LetUsServe.org for more information about military DREAMers and their quest to serve.
And, on this Memorial Day, we honor those who have lost their lives in the service of the country, like Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, who arrived in the United States as an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala. As CBS News reported, in March of 2003, Gutierrez was one of the first fatalities in the Iraq war. From CBS:
Did you know that approximately 38,000 Americans in uniform are not American citizens – and that at least 10 men who have been killed in Iraq were not U.S. citizens?
That sounds astonishing, but in fact, it’s nothing new. It’s been like that in every war the United States has fought, from Valley Forge to Vietnam.
For making the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the United States, Gutierrez was awarded citizenship posthumously.
