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Study: Immigrants Play Key Role in Military During Wartime

A new report from the Immigration Policy Center shows that the U.S. military does rely somewhat on foreign-born recruits to meet goals and serve as translators.

Essential to the Fight: Immigrants in the Military, Eight Years After 9/11 investigates the current state of America’s armed forces after almost a decade of war. According to the study, changes were made to military policies after Sept. 11, 2001 to give enlisted immigrants U.S. citizenship eligibility, and that naturalization is always at its highest during wartime.

The study points out that just one year after Sept. 11 in 2002, there were 2,434 members in the military that were naturalized in the United States. That number has increased every year since, except in 2007. In 2009, that number was four times higher than it was in 2002 with 10,505 members of the military naturalized in the U.S. and abroad.

Some other highlights from the study:

• About 8 percent of the 1.4 million military personnel on active duty are foreign born.
• About 90 percent of foreign‐born service members were naturalized U.S. citizens, while approximately 13 percent were not U.S. citizens.
• As of October 2009, more than 53,000 immigrants had taken advantage of this provision to become U.S. citizens.

To read Essential to the Fight: Immigrants in the Military, Eight Years After 9/11 in its entirety, click here.