An amendment in the defense budget that was intended to open up the military to document-less immigrants who came to the US as minor children may have seen its death by a vote in the House last week, but an immigration attorney stated that legislation was unnecessary because the Defense Department already had that authority.

An Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel who was a teacher at West Point and was a MacArthur Foundation Fellow called the collapsed amendment a “symbolic effort”, stating that “the President already has statutory authority to let them enlist, or more precisely, his service secretaries have the authority”.

A Republican helped to draft the amendment which would have in turn led the Defense Secretary to go through the military readiness of opening up of enlistments to unlawful immigrants staying in the United States of America under the executive orders of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

These immigrants are called DREAMERs – from Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, a legislation that is proposed to give the alien native but raised in America people a way to citizenship.

Amongst the committee lawmaker was one who stated – “”There is no higher expression of citizenship than serving your nation in uniform. I am fighting every day to give DREAMERS the same chance I had to serve this country”.