2,4 million US Army veterans are immigrants or their children - ForumDaily
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2,4 Million US Armed Forces Veterans Are Immigrants or Their Children

11 November is America Veterans Day. Immigrants have helped defend the country in military service for most of history. But it is becoming increasingly difficult for US aliens to become military personnel and obtain citizenship after service.

Фото: Depositphotos

The big picture is this: 2,4 million of the country's veterans were born outside the United States or are the children of immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) - 13% of the total number of veterans, writes Axios.

On November 11, Ken Cuccinelli, Acting Director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, will hold a special naturalization ceremony on Veterans Day. 12 servicemen and veterans who will receive citizenship will join more than 760 000 people who became citizens thanks to military service in the last century.

According to an MPI study, veterans who served in the army before becoming US citizens were likely to last longer than their counterparts, American citizens. Legitimate permanent residents, refugees, temporary visa holders, and even DACA recipients serve in the US armed forces, among them are first-generation Americans whose parents came to America from other countries.

In 2018, approximately 11 percent of veterans of foreign origin were women, compared to 9 percent of veterans of local origin. The average age of foreign veterans was 57 years compared to 62 years for those born in the United States, MPI data.

In general, immigrant veterans (25 years old and older) have a higher level of education than their counterparts who were born in the United States: they are more likely to be college graduates and less likely to drop out of school. Immigrant veterans are also more educated than adult non-immigrants in the United States.

Households headed by immigrant veterans have higher incomes than native Americans. In 2018, immigrant veterans had an average income of 91 000 dollars compared to 84 000 dollars for families of veterans born in the country.

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According to MPI, from September 2001 to 2013, almost 300 troops of foreign origin were killed in battle in the period from September.

Over the past few years - under 44th US President Barack Obama and now 45th US President Donald Trump - it has become more difficult for non-citizens to enlist in the US military and for immigrant veterans to become citizens. This year, military personnel were more likely to be denied citizenship than civilians. The number of military personnel applying for citizenship has also decreased.

Since 2016, the Department of Defense has added stricter requirements for screening non-citizens who want to participate in US Army entry programs for national security reasons. The requirements for applicants for citizenship by expedited procedure through the military service were also added.

Last year, the army fired over 500 immigrants who were recruited under the MANVI program. This program was created to hire non-citizens with the necessary language and medical skills, but was actually frozen. According to MPI, more than a thousand program recruits received visas, and their legal status expired as early as May 2017, which puts them at risk of deportation.

Immigrants are denied employment for “arbitrary reasons,” said Axios Muzaffar Chishti, director of the University of New York School of Law.

“There seems to be no good reason from a security point of view to turn people away. There are general suspicions,” he added.

Even after serving in the army, some immigrant soldiers may be deported if convicted of a crime. Marine Corps veteran Jose Segovia-Benitez hit the headlines last month after being deported from the United States, where he lived for 3, to his native Salvador on conviction. Some of his supporters say that despite the sentences, the deportation was unfair, given his service in Iraq and the brain injury he received while abroad.

Russian ordinary America

For a long time they did not understand their grandparents who put on Soviet orders for all American military holidays - and sometimes just on weekends. Now they understand. After serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, Russian ordinary Americans are not shy about their American awards, writes Kommersant.

Nobody knows for sure how many children from the countries of the former USSR became soldiers of the United States Army. Probably, somewhere in the archives of the Pentagon there is a complete list of military personnel with an exact indication of their countries of birth, but the duty officer of the US military department refused to search for such a list.

The president of the Be Proud charity foundation, Raisa Chernina, is sure that several hundred Russian-speaking war veterans now live in New York alone.

“I’ve been in America for more than 30 years and I can say for sure that neither in the 80s nor in the 90s were boys from the Russian community particularly eager to join the army,” she assures. — Usually they signed a contract so that the army would pay for college, in order to quickly obtain a residence permit or simply become legalized in the country. Everything changed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It was a real shock, then many people seriously decided that it was time to defend the country in which they live.”

Private Mark Bronfman, who immigrated from St. Petersburg in 14 years and has served in the US Army, does not agree with her. According to him, patriotic moods are far from the first place.

“We had two guys from Russia, one from Ukraine, two more from Belarus. So, two, including me, went, let’s say, for company. Here they pay money, and then it is useful for your career to have a record of military service in your personal file. The third wanted to see the world. And for the rest, the reason is the most banal: they wanted to quickly get a residence permit, and then an American passport. The army is the fastest, albeit riskiest, path to documents.”

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“Despite their uniform, they still remain Russian. They feel better with their own people, and their real friends are also from the former Soviet Union. Well, for example, among our veterans there is a private of the American Marine Corps, Pavel Morozov. It can be difficult for Americans to explain why ours begin to smile when his name is mentioned,” says Raisa. - But seriously, there are real heroes among these guys. Special Forces Captain Mikhail Tarlavsky, born in Riga and killed in Iraq, became the first member of our community to receive the highest military honor in the United States - he was buried at Arlington National Military Cemetery.

Tarlavsky’s parents moved to America in 1979. After school, Mikhail began serving in the National Guard, received a military scholarship, and graduated from the university. According to the contract, if the army pays for training, then the graduate is obliged to repay the debt, so that, together with a diploma of higher education, Tarlawsky received shoulder straps of the second US infantry lieutenant. He served in Korea and Hawaii, fought in Afghanistan. Then in Iraq. The country's highest awards are two Silver Stars for exceptional courage, and three Bronze. He wanted to rise to the rank of general, so without hesitation accepted the offer once again to return to Iraq. Tarlavsky captain died on 12 on August 2004 of the year in Najaf.

“Russian” veterans really don’t like to talk about the war. Marine sergeant Alexei Pressman, who lost a leg in Iraq, talks about his injury as follows:

“I was injured while we were on our way to Baghdad to pick up medical supplies. The road was two hours, we went out for a smoke break, and I immediately stepped on a mine. My left foot was torn off and shredded a little... The guys dragged me to the car. There was a doctor with us, but he didn’t even have painkillers. They called a helicopter, it arrived an hour later, they injected me with painkillers and brought me to a field hospital in Baghdad. The first operation was performed there... After that, they went to the States, where they were admitted to a good hospital, one of the best, and three more operations were performed there.”

Pressman came to America from Minsk when he was 17. And two years later he enlisted in the army, although he did not even manage to get a residence permit.

“At first it was hard because my English was bad... But, of course, everyone helped. I arrived in Iraq around May 2003. There was no fear, there was just a patriotic mood that we were going to defend the country... We went with the guys with whom I had served for a long time, plus a couple of Russian friends I had there. You just go with the people you know.”

After Iraq, Pressman created the Association of Russian-speaking Veterans of the American Army. But he is still embarrassed to talk about how President George W. Bush personally thanked him in the hospital after being wounded.

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