Torres, who was born in Mexico and migrated legally to the United States at age 5, is afraid to venture far from home as President Donald Trump works to carry out his mass deportation agenda. Torres has a green card residency permit and a record of service in the U.S. military, but he was detained by immigration authorities last year under the Biden administration. He fears that U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement raids under Trump could only mean more trouble.
“Do I want to leave this nation? No. I want to serve it. I want to continue to serve my community,” Torres told The Associated Press. “It breaks my heart that I fought for this nation to raise my children in this nation, and now I have to pull my children out of this nation if I get deported. Then what did I fight for?”
There are well more than 100,000 military veterans living in the U.S. who do not have citizenship, according to estimates in recent years by the Congressional Research Service. Despite military recruiters frequently describing service as a fast-track to citizenship for troops and their family members, the Republican administration’s immigration agenda is putting them at renewed risk of deportation.
Fucking wild that we had people in our military that were not given citizenship afterward. How much more do you need to do?
Give it a little and I’m sure we’ll Starship Trooper it soon.
Oof, now that you put it like that… I don’t know what a good solution would be. But surely there’s a better option than lifetime chance of deportation.
Im no fan of the armed services but the existence of ‘veterans who lack citizenship’ is a pretty disgusting indication of how they treat the people who would kill and die for the military.
I thought that serving in the military is one of the ways people from other countries become citizens. I know that’s how my grandpa did it. I’m guessing they made it infinitely more complicated now
If its anything like the healthcare systems I navigate for people with disabilities, its probably far from automatic and requires multiple bureaucratic steps, documents, and phone calls over a long period of time and constant checking on the status of the application, or they’d just assume you don’t want it.
Even in Robert Heinlein’s fascist dystopian world in the novel Starship Troopers “Service guarantees citizenship”.
Only 18% of veterans receive the benefits they’re entitled to, and that was before Trump’s second term.
Look up “buffalo soldiers.”
Giving your life for a country that won’t even give you citizenship for doing so is kinda wild to me ngl
Big surprise: the “support our troops” crowd never gave a fuck about them. Just like how they support gun ownership, and free speech, and religion, the unborn, free markets, the rule of law, family, small government, peace, democracy, personal liberty, civility, …
Almost as if it’s all just empty, hollow rhetoric they use to beat people over the head with to further their agenda without meaningfully addressing.
Weird how that keeps happening, huh…
Why is he at risk for being considered illegal if he has a legal Green card residency permit and record of USA military service??
too much melanin…
Because our government says that only white people who adore trump can be citizens or something
I feel like “veterans who lack citizenship” is kind of an oxymoronic phrase… like a “non-alcoholic bourbon.”
Any country should at least do what the Romans did. If you successfully served the military, you automatically became a citizen.
They will be. It should be obvious they’re not going to hold back. And once they run out of “legitimate” (quotes doing heavy lifting there) targets, they’ll come for others. Even if you are white, male and decently well-off, if you’re not sycophantic enough, that’ll suffice.
How is serving in the us military not an expedited path to citizenship? This is insanity.
This admin would have much better ratings if they engaged a well advertised program for veteran citizenship. It’s ripe opportunity and they’re just letting it sit there.
Instead, we have Stephen Miller, bigot extraordinaire, running things while Trump is in decline, so it will never happen.
And green card holders have to register for selective service. I shoukd say they had to, I’m not sure if that is still a thing or not.
Federal law requires nearly all male U.S. citizens and male immigrants to register at age 18. The agency permits males up to age 25 to complete their registration with Selective Service System.
Source: https://www.sss.gov/
What kind of shithole country doesn’t give citizenship to its soldiers?
“service guarentees citizenship”
