Headline Roundup • June 20th, 2023
Military Looks to Legal Immigrants as Recruiting Woes Continue
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Amid recruiting troubles, the U.S. military has begun marketing itself more directly to legal permanent residents, offering them U.S. citizenship if they enlist and complete basic training.
Key Quotes: "We have large populations of legal U.S. residents who are exceptionally patriotic, they’re exceptionally grateful for the opportunities that this country has provided," said Air Force Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas, head of the branch's recruiting.
For Context: Discussions about improving pathways to U.S. citizenship and encouraging legal immigration continue after a record-high influx of migrants arrivals at the southern border. Meanwhile, the military is struggling with recruiting. Army and Air Force leaders told lawmakers in April that they expect to miss their fiscal year 2024 recruiting goals by 10,000, and Navy officials said the branch expects to miss by 6,000.
How the Media Covered It: Sources across the spectrum covered the military's new marketing trend positively, while framing in the context of its pessimistic recruiting outlook.
Common Ground: From left to right, sources suggested that bolstering the military's ranks with legal immigrants is a good idea. Mother Jones (Left bias) explored why immigrants choose to serve, suggesting they see it as "a way to integrate, establish their eligibility for citizenship, and demonstrate their allegiance to a country that sees them as owing it a debt." Washington Examiner (Lean Right) said early results suggest the marketing push "is working and could do even more to benefit the United States if it is further expanded."
Featured Coverage of this Story
John Moore/Getty
Immigrant soldiers have served in every significant US conflict since the Revolutionary War, but their presence in the military is often overlooked. When sociologist Sofya Aptekar went searching for immigrant veterans to interview for her new book, Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat, many workers in veteran support offices told her they didn’t exist. “People didn’t understand that you could be in the US military without being a US citizen,” she told me.
In fact, about 7,000 people with green cards join the military each year, according to the Department of...
Vanessa R. Adame (AP)
When Esmita Spudes Bidari was a young girl in Nepal, she dreamed of being in the military.
Now her dream has come true. But instead of serving in Nepal’s military, she recently joined the U.S. Army Reserves.
Bidari, who heads to basic training in August, is just the latest in a growing number of legal migrants entering the U.S. military.
In the U.S., military service is not required. And it has been difficult for the military to get enough people to volunteer. As a result, the Army and Air Force have reached...
Washington Examiner
The Pentagon has seen early success in signing up green card-holding legal immigrants with the promise of immediate citizenship as a solution to a recruitment nightmare that threatens to cripple its ranks as early as 2025.
"The Biden administration still requires people to have a green card to join the military, but they're overwhelmed with people who want to join the military and cannot because they don't have a green card," said Margaret Stock, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and author of Immigration Law and the Military: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast...
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