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The California Report

Advocates Push For Expedited Pathway To Citizenship For Foreign Nationals In US Military

Keith Mizuguchi
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Female United States Marine Corps (USMC) recruits from Lima Company, the first gender integrated training class in San Diego complete their 9.7 mile hike on Edson Range to the top of a mountain called The Reaper, during The Crucible, the final part of phase three of recruit training before officially becoming US Marines on April 22, 2021 at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California. - Lima Company is the first gender integrated company with a female platoon training alongside male platoons at the west coast Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego (MCRDSD). The Crucible is the final 54-hour test for the recruits, where upon completion the recruits will receive their eagle, globe, and anchor pin to officially become US Marines. Recruits had to spend two weeks in quarantine before beginning training due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Congress ordered the Marine Corps to fully integrate women into its west coast training battalions by 2028 under the National Defense Authorization Act. Women make up about 9 percent of the Marine Corps. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP)

Here are the morning’s top stories on Monday, December 9, 2024…

  • There are more than 40,000 foreign nationals serving in our military. And most of them are just one mistake away from being deported. Some veterans are now advocating for a federal law that would make it easier for foreign-born soldiers to become American citizens. 
  • Los Angeles Congressman Adam Schiff will be sworn in Monday as California’s junior U.S. Senator, filling a seat held by Dianne Feinstein for decades.
  • President-elect Trump has pledged to conduct mass deportations. That’s stoked fears among financial aid experts, who worry about how his administration might use data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA.

As Veterans Risk Deportation, Advocates Push For Protections

There are now more than 40,000 foreign nationals serving in the U.S. Military. And those who don’t become American citizens are just one mistake away from being deported.

It happens more often than most realize, according to Robert Vivar, an advocate with the Tijuana-based United U.S. Deported Veterans Resource Center. Dozens of veterans have faced deportation in recent years, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “The deportation of veterans is worldwide,” he said. “We have deported veterans in over 40 countries around the world.”

Vivar’s group is trying to persuade conservative lawmakers to support a federal bill that would make it easier for foreign nationals to become U.S. citizens during their military service. HR 4569, known as the Veterans Service and Recognition Act, was introduced last year. It hasn’t made it out of committee and so far only two House Republicans have joined over 50 Democrats in supporting the bill.

Adam Schiff To Be Sworn Into The Senate

Democrat Adam Schiff stood on the Senate floor almost five years ago as a House impeachment manager and made a passionate case that Donald Trump should be removed from office for abusing the power of the presidency. “If right doesn’t matter, we’re lost,” he told the senators, his voice cracking at one point.

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The Republican-led Senate wasn’t convinced, and senators voted to acquit Trump on the Democratic-led impeachment charges over his dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump would survive a second impeachment a year later after his supporters stormed the Capitol and tried to overturn his defeat.

Now Trump is headed back to the White House, politically stronger than ever and with a firm hold over what will be a unified Republican Congress. And Schiff, one of Trump’s biggest foils, will be sworn into the Senate on Monday as part of a Democratic caucus that is headed into the minority and has been so far restrained in opposing the returning president, taking more of a wait-and-see approach in the weeks before he is sworn into office.

College Students Face Dilemma: Applying For Financial Aid Could Expose Undocumented Parents

Across California, counselors and other educators are helping students complete their financial aid applications — this after last year’s chaotic relaunch of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which was ridden with so many glitches that it became hard or impossible for some students to apply.

In this political climate, should U.S. citizens in mixed-status families submit a FAFSA? Now, with a second Trump administration on the horizon, financial aid experts worry that some of these students — those who have at least one parent who is an undocumented immigrant — might face additional hurdles securing money for college.

 

During his 2024 campaign, the president-elect pledged to “carry out the largest deportation operation in [U.S.] history.” And, in California, more than 12% of high school students have at least one parent who is undocumented.

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