Respect the military

Congressman French Hill currently supports a bill named the Encourage New Legalized Immigrants to Start Training (ENLIST) Act (HR 60).

On the surface this bill seems like a harmless idea: The U.S. military receives more troops and those who recently immigrated to our country become eligible to serve. Proponents of this bill argue that both the military and our immigration system benefit from this legislation, but I believe this couldn’t be further from the truth.

The ENLIST Act would allow illegal immigrants to receive lawful permanent resident status in exchange for military service, aka military amnesty. The legislation does nothing to advance U.S. national security objectives. It undermines the military by unnecessarily dragging the controversial immigration debate into the U.S. military and the brave men and women who serve it. The ENLIST Act also damages our already broken immigration system by putting those who violated the law ahead of those who want to come to our country legally.

Congressman French Hill should respect our military and the rule of law by removing his name from the co-sponsor list and opposing the ENLIST Act.

RON URSERY Maumelle