Immigrants have love for their new land

These people are much more patriotic than most give immigrants credit for. More than many people born here too. Serving in the military and going to war and not even citizens, amazing! DP

By Hernán Rozemberg - Express-News

To immigration skeptics who subscribe to the notion that newcomers are not thankful for their adopted country, Leonardo Aguirre has a simple message: Look at me.

Aguirre, who grew up in poverty in Nicaragua until his parents moved him to California when he was 12, was one of 10 immigrants serving in the U.S. armed forces who became citizens as part of Veterans Day services Tuesday at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

“I appreciate everything this country has given me,” said Aguirre, 22 and a father of two toddlers. He's in his third year with the Air Force and is stationed at Lackland AFB.

“By joining the military and now becoming a citizen, I'm doing my part of the bargain,” added Aguirre after receiving his citizenship certificate to roaring applause.

He's not the only foreigner to put on a U.S. military uniform.

There are more than 65,000 immigrants serving in the armed forces and about 645,000 immigrant veterans, according to a report released this month by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.

Mexico, the country at the center of the national immigration debate because it's by far the largest source of immigrants, has the second-largest representation among active-duty military and veterans, after the Philippines.

More than 6,000 active-duty military and about 73,000 veterans came from Mexico, according to MPI.

The military has a long tradition of recruiting immigrants during wartime, and President Bush issued an executive order in 2002 giving them a faster transition to citizenship, dropping a rule requiring them to serve one year before being allowed to apply.

Since the war on terror was declared in September 2001, nearly 43,000 immigrants in the military have gained citizenship, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — almost 6,000 of them sworn in while deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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