You know, my personal opinion is that if you serve a full four year term in the service of this country, be it Air Force, Marines, Army, Navy or Coast Guard, if you serve a 4 year term and are honorably discharged, you should get full citizenship for both yourself and your immediate family (mother, father, sister, brother, wife, child).
Why? Because less than ONE PERCENT of this country is interested in serving, and if a person is willing to defend this country, they should be allowed to live here and be a citizen.
Interestingly enough, I heard on the news the other night (don't know if it's true, sounds a bit off), but they said that only 30 percent of the people who are old enough to serve in the military are even qualified. They said that 70 percent of this country is unqualified due to physical or mental reasons, or they are disqualified because of criminal convictions or they can't score high enough on the ASVAB.
If you are qualified to serve, and are willing to do so for a full term, you should be allowed citizenship after honorably serving your first term.
And I say this as a 20 year U.S. Navy retired veteran.
I agree as long as they are not illegal aliens who sneaked into the US.
You know, if they are kids who are DREAM program eligible, and they serve a full term, that shows they love this country and are willing to do anything to defend it. After a 4 year term, served honorably, they should get full citizenship.
Even if their parents did drag them here when they where just children.
We agree!
You know, when I did my final tour at the MEPS in Amarillo, I had a PN2 who was a classifier working for me who was originally a teacher from Mexico. Seems he couldn't get much work as a teacher, so he came up here, joined the Navy, and then started working towards his citizenship. Took him a few years, but he finally did it and I was glad to see him become a citizen.
Until he became a citizen, we used to tease him about Border Patrol coming to get him because he forgot his green card at home.
But, he was a damn good sailor, and a pretty decent Classifier.