I only read the text, as I just couldn't pull away from Heaven's Gate on my DVR. Regardless of my failure, I wanted to share one comment to Bush's speech, in which he told the tearful tale of Guadalupe Denogean, a Mexican immigrant who, after joining the United States Marine Corps in 1978, finally became a citizen in 2003.
After reading this bit, I stopped to wonder aloud how someone who was admittedly not an American citizen can serve in the country's army for twenty-five plus years. How did Guadalupe Denogean get into the U.S. Army in the first place in 1978? Apparently, the military has only had a "dodge bullets for citizenship" program for immigrant soldiers since the late 1990s.
To make matters doubly confounding was Bush speaking disparagingly of people using "forged documents" to enter the country and obtain employment. Did Denogean use forged documents to enter the military? If not, how exactly was he able to enlist? If he did use forged documents, does that diminish his honorable service? If not, then why is it okay to "cheat" your way into getting wounded in an unjustified war and not to "cheat" your way into obtaining a job? Denogean, now on the other side of the fence (pun intended), says he does not favor amnesty for undocumented immigrants and stated that, "This is the land of opportunity. You can make it what you want... But to do it right, you have to be legal."
Denogean becoming "citizenized." April 11, 2003 (really).
Could it be that this three-year old "rah rah" story is just a feeble minded attempt to link the immigration issue to one of the many issues Bush is taking a beating on in the polls?
Iraq quagmire? Don't worry, we'll have a guest soldier program.
National Security? You bet we're going to address that with the immigration bill. It might have been Mexicans on 9/11... Mexican Al-Qaeda, of course. With WMDs.
Economic problems got you down? Sure, we'll just have a guest worker program , but that doesn't mean employers will have to give 'em minimum wage or government-subsidized health care. Oh, and by the way, corporate exploiters of immigrant labor, you're absolved of any blame because, even though you assiduously checked all those W-2 documents before hiring your labor for a nickel an hour, it's clear that the immigrants are master document forgers. You're clearly not to blame... at all.
In fact, the program has been designed such that you won't have to pay benefits or SSI or FICA taxes for any guest workers. Instead, checks should be made out to your Republican representative(s) just in time for the primaries. You see, it's a win-win. Go team.
1 comment:
You don't need to be a citizen to join the military. You just need to have residency status. When I was in the army, we had in my 120 man company alone 2 guys from Jamaica, a guy from Taiwan, quite a few from Mexico and Central America, a German, and a Russian. None were citizens, but all were legal residents.
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