Fast Way to Citizenship

The swearing-in of Sergio Lopez as a US citizen in the first week of August made me wonder how a man who was a US soldier since 2003 was just now becoming a citizen. My research revealed that about 2% of the US military are noncitizens. In 2002, President Bush sped up the naturalization track for those noncitizen soldiers, signing an Executive Order that waived a three-year waiting period and allowed foreign-born troops to petition for citizenship one day after donning a US uniform.

Why couldn't we just select potential soldiers from the 11 million illegal Mexican immigrants and offer them citizenship for enlisting in the US military? They could start the process of citizenship while they were fighting for their new country. They would learn the American language in the process and receive payments and educational benefits for post-military life in the US.

Their families would be getting better medical benefits and we wouldn't be giving anyone amnesty. It has been an accepted policy since the War of 1812.

Retired Brigadier General Kevin Ryan suggested in the "Christian Science Monitor" that the US Army open a recruiting station in India--a big potential source of English-speaking enlistees. We could enlist the ones that we want. The India people already are making parts for DELL computers and technical support for AOL.