Donald Trump. Photo: Gage Skidmore–Flickr
It’s long been clear that President Trump rails against the specter of immigrant criminality to justify indiscriminate and sweeping cruelty towards immigrants. But their latest crackdown, targeting the most patriotic of immigrants, is shocking even by the standards of this administration.
The Trump administration’s efforts to discharge immigrants from the military – those prepared to put their lives on the line for this country – and denaturalize and strip citizenship from select Americans, who have pledged allegiance to the flag, is a direct rebuke to some of the founding values we celebrated this July 4th.
“The great immigrant purge continues. The same week we celebrate the 4th of July that honors America’s Declaration of Independence and the freedoms that so many have died to uphold, the Trump administration is aiming to strip citizenship from Americans, who pledge allegiance to the flag, and discharge from the military those who are prepared to pay the ultimate sacrifice for our country,” said Pili Tobar, managing Director of America’s Voice. “The administration’s restrictive and ugly view of what it means to be an American is a direct challenge to our national motto of E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One.”
The Trump administration announced a task force to strip citizenship from select naturalized Americans. While the administration claims it will only target “a few thousand” immigrants, who relied on false information in order to gain citizenship, their track record and anti-immigrant animus should call into question their motivations and reassurances.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press article from this week, “U.S. Army Quietly Discharging Immigrant Recruits,” captures the push to kick out immigrants serving in the military and prepared to lay their lives on the line for America:
“Some immigrant U.S. Army reservists and recruits who enlisted in the military with a promised path to citizenship are being abruptly discharged … To become citizens, the service members need an honorable service designation, which can come after even just a few days at boot camp. But the recently discharged service members have had their basic training delayed, so they can’t be naturalized.
Margaret Stock, an Alaska-based immigration attorney and a retired Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who helped create the immigrant recruitment program, said she’s been inundated over the past several days by recruits who have been abruptly discharged.
All had signed enlistment contracts and taken an Army oath, Stock said. Many were reservists who had been attending unit drills, receiving pay and undergoing training, while others had been in a “delayed entry” program, she said.
“Immigrants have been serving in the Army since 1775,” Stock said. “We wouldn’t have won the revolution without immigrants. And we’re not going to win the global war on terrorism today without immigrants.”
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