Keeping Faith with Immigrant Military Personnel and Veterans

Abstract

This chapter considers why immigrant military personnel and veterans should be granted unconditional naturalization immediately upon enlistment. It makes a normative argument for reviving the connection between the obligations of military service and the rights of citizenship. It applies this argument to the political problem of deporting noncitizen military personnel and veterans. In the U.S., military service currently does not immediately result in naturalization. Nor does it protect a noncitizen veteran from deportation. The normative content of the oath of enlistment should be construed as creating a permanent reciprocal relationship of rights and obligations between the U.S. government and a soldier regardless of citizenship status. Noncitizens who serve in a nation’s armed forces during a period of declared hostilities should be rendered immune from deportation for the rest of their lives. If they commit an offense, they should be punished for their crimes without being deported or denaturalized.