THE IRAQ WAR: Mexican soldiers

Tim, Brown comments about the postings on Mexicans receiving immediate naturalization for serving with the US army in Iraq: "Life is never simple. To join the US armed forces you must be a citizen or permanent resident alien, meaning first you must legally immigrate. Tourists, students, temporary workers don't count. To become a permanent resident you must formally declare that your intention is to reside permanently in the US. Further, expeditious naturalization is even then available only under exceptional circumstances, not as a mater of routine. Permanent resident alien members of the armed forces must normally meet exactly the same requirements for naturalization as anyone else in terms of length of residence, INS examination, and being sworn in by a judge.

Each country has its own laws and regulations in this, as in other regards. This can make for many unusual and sometimes painful problems both for citizens and for alien members of the US armed forces. For example, in years past a US citizen could lose his or her citizenship by voluntarily enlisting in another country's armed forces.As a Consul in Tel Aviv I personally executed literally dozens of Certificates of Expatriation (formal notification of loss of citizenship) to US citizens who entered the Israeli armed forces voluntarily. (I understand the law has since changed). Since Israeli had universal military conscription and many US citizens are dual US-Israeli nationals, there were constant complications because of this. But not just in Israeli. In Spain, I remember one case in which a Bolivian member of the US Air Force lost his Bolivian citizenship because he was in our forces and became stateless. Mexico had compulsory universal military service and no military alliance with the US so, unlike members of NATO, there was no reciprocity. To serve in the army of a NATO ally, France, Germany was acceptable in lieu of serving in the US forces, but that was not the case in Mexico. So if you were a dual U-Mexican national serving in the US armed forces did not exempt you from being drafted in Mexico, nor did serving in Mexico's forces exempt you from being drafted into ours during Vietnam or Korea.

The variations are endless. The only constants are that every sovereign country devises its own laws and applies them independently, interest groups inevitably exploit this sort of issue for political reasons, and commercial media often do the same to sell more advertising, as is apparently the case with Univision today (I watch it, too). But it's an old problem, not a new one".

RH: Indeed. During the Mussolini regime, I knew a Frenchman of Italian descent. He went to Italy, where he was drafted on the basis of jus sanguinis: Italian by inheritance. Why was the law changed with regard to Israel? Was it under pressure from the Zionist lobby? Compare that with the treatment of the Americans who joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to fight in the Spanish Civil War. On April 27 this year, only 17 survivors of the original 2,800 attended the 67th annual reunion in New York. Their experiences with the US government would make an interesting study. The papers of the so.called brigade, now in New York University, would provide additional documentation.

Ronald Hilton - 5/12/03