I won't even pretend to know all of the answers to the problem of "undocumented immigrants." But I do know this much, we have to stem the flow of the illegal border crossers before we attempt to do anything with those that are already here. It seems Washington is going about it backwards, trying to come up with some solutions for those that are here and ignoring the constant flow of illegal crossers. If we provide relief for the illegals already here, all we will be doing is encouraging more to come to take advantage of the new "opportunity." We have to stop the constant flow of illegal alien traffic! Oh sure, periodically it slows down, isn't as bad as it was before, but it never stops! You can't have such a porous border and hope to solve the problem with those that are already here!
Mexico, a country that provides the bulk of the illegal residents here and is critical of our "strict" immigration laws, does not practice what it preaches. Mexico has had a problem of the flow of illegal entrants into its country for quite some time now. These are people who are desperate to escape their situation in Central and South America, especially those from countries such as Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador. Mexico has militarized their border with Guatemala. There are several large Mexican Army units posted along the border and their sole purpose is to guard the border, to stop the flow of illegal entrants. Mexico's border with Guatemala is less than a quarter the size of our southern border, yet they have twice as many soldiers on their border with Guatemala as we have Border Patrol personnel on ours with Mexico.
If we want to solve the problem of illegal aliens in our country, we must first stop the flow! To do that we must complete the building of the border fence. The liberal members of our society will scream in protest again, claiming that we are creating a fascist society. Despite their protests, to stop the illegal flow, we have to complete the fence and not leave huge open stretches that exist today. We must also increase our manpower and electronic surveillance equipment along the border. Border Patrol should be at least doubled! Once we stop the bleeding, or at least slow it down significantly, then we can proceed with solving the problem with those that are already here, not the other way around, which is what we are doing now!
Assuming that we manage to stop or slow the traffic significantly, one solution, and it is just one small solution of many that we can employ, is to revive the old Lodge Act. I mentioned the Lodge Act in my very early blogs on Special Forces, but it bears repeating. In 1950, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge sponsored a bill, the Lodge Act, which was created to help fill the ranks in the U.S. Army with much needed speakers of Eastern European languages, languages of the countries that were behind the Iron Curtain. Our military was sorely in need of Eastern European language speakers. If a war broke out with the Soviet Bloc, we would have been in serious trouble, lacking sufficient personnel who could speak the languages. The Lodge Act authorized the U.S. Army to recruit personnel from Eastern European countries (refugees), and if they passed the grueling vetting processes, to allow them to enlist for a 5 year enlistment. At the end of the 5 years of honorable service, they could apply and become U.S. citizens.
There was much disagreement among those in our government. Many felt that we would be "destroying" the U.S. Army by creating a "foreign legion." Others said that we did not need to copy the French and their Foreign Legion. So, although the Lodge Act became law, the army was very reluctant to use it. A pity! The Lodge Act authorized the army to recruit up to 12,500 Eastern Europeans, but that figure was never reached. It was never meant to create a separate unit like the French Foreign Legion. Those who were recruited under the Lodge Act would be integrated into the regular units. Still the army as a whole was very reluctant to recruit foreigners.
The few that were recruited by the army were misused, put in jobs that did not require their linguistic ability or knowledge of Easter Europe. So the Lodge Act almost died before it got started. Then in 1952 the Special Forces was created and the Special Forces made good use of the Lodge Act. Although the numbers were not huge, still, Special Forces took advantage of the Lodge Act and recruited Eastern European candidates specifically to fill jobs with the 10th Special Forces Group whose responsibility was Europe (it still is!). The Lodge Act expired in 1959, but not before Special Forces was able to recruit some significant numbers, including veterans of the French Indochina War from among ex-Foreign Legion members. I was fortunate enough to have met some of those old Lodge Act Special Forces members. They were a fascinating lot, most of them multi-lingual and superb soldiers.
Contrary to fears of some who were against the Lodge Act, there was not one single case of a Lodge Act soldier who was a communist agent or turned bad, so to speak. All of them made decent soldiers, some were superb and went on to outstanding military careers.
If we created a similar opportunity for not just Hispanic aliens, but those of any nationality, we would not only increase a pool of linguists in our military, but increase the number of young men and women volunteering for military service! Right now, military recruiters are having a tough time filling quotas. Additionally, enlistment for a 5 year period will give more time to the military to train and use the services of the enlistee, an additional year at least. This would also provide an outlet for the illegals in the country, at least for those who qualify! This process should be open to all branches of service, not just the army as was the Lodge Act.
The military has always had a shortage of linguists. To fill the need, all branches of the service go through great expense sending their members to the Defense Language Institute and even to the Foreign Service Institute for language training. The presence of native speakers in various languages would greatly relieve that situation. Ours is a multicultural society, we pride ourselves of that fact. We are probably the most multicultural society of all countries, yet, our military is sorely lacking in linguists in many areas. I believe the system of allowing aliens to enlist in our military will greatly improve the situation by not only filling much needed positions for linguists but simply providing more personnel, some with professional or technical acquired skills. It is a win-win situation, in my opinion, and it will also provide relief for some of the illegal aliens in our country.
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