On April 4, 2003, US newspapers reported the case of Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez, aged twenty-seven, who died in a tank battle outside Umm Qasr in Iraq on March 21, 2003 (Weiner 2003). Corporal Gutierrez was an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, an orphan who had reached the United States through clandestine means and who joined the Marines in California. His case is by no means unusual: over a dozen legal and undocumented immigrants – mainly from Mexico and Central America – who were members of the US armed forces stationed in Iraq have lost their lives since March 2003. It is estimated that about 37,000 immigrants serve in the US armed forces, making up about 3 percent of the population on active duty (Swarns 2003). Their sad stories led both conservative and liberal lawmakers to propose hastily passed bills to grant these slain soldiers, and in some cases their spouses and children, posthumous citizenship. Some suggested that immigrants who join the armed forces be granted citizenship immediately, while still others advocated the reduction of the current waiting period for the granting of citizenship to those in the military from three to two years.

This is by no means the first time that immigrants have served in the US army. With the abolition of universal conscription, however, joining the army has become a venue of upward mobility for large numbers of low-income legal and undocumented migrants.