Robert Gates: Ending DACA Will Hurt Immigrant Troops<br />Quoting Abraham Lincoln, I said that immigrants can read the phrase “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence and feel<br />that “they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh, of the men who wrote that Declaration.”<br />Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, the Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world.<br />At one ceremony, in October 2008 at Fort Bragg, N. C., 41 immigrant service members, men and women from 26 countries, became citizens.<br />During the nearly five years that I was secretary of defense, 2,621 immigrants serving in the<br />United States military became naturalized citizens while deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.<br />In that same period, from 2006 to 2011, a total of 45,700 immigrants who wore the<br />uniform of the American military all across the world became American citizens.<br />Indeed, about 7 in 10 of the more than 30 million Americans between 17<br />and 24 years old would fail to qualify for the military because of physical, behavioral or educational problems<br />In 2010, I wrote to Congress in defense of a bill known as the Dream Act that would have provided undocumented youth a pathway to permanent residency.<br />But the importance of recruiting immigrants into our military has only increased in the years since<br />because fewer and fewer young Americans are eligible to serve.
