Fake New Alert: USA Today “Army Discharging Immigrants”

My wife and I have a patriotic family.  I served eight years in the military (four in the Marine Corps Reserves, and four in the Army), and my wife immigrated from communist Poland when she was twenty, with but a suitcase of clothes, to become a US Citizen a few years ago.  Two years ago, one of my wife’s cousins became a US Citizen, literally on the Fourth of July.  My wife and I celebrated this past Fourth of July in style: I smoked a full packer brisket (with the point cut still attached so that fat rendered down the flat-cut brisket, completely basting it as it smoked), along with two pork shoulders, a salmon, and three racks of ribs.  I also grilled shrimp, asparagus, zucchini, and cucumbers (and if you have never grilled cucumbers, you are missing out).  We threw a big party and had a wonderful time celebrating our nation’s birthday.

USA Today celebrated the Fourth of July by posting fake news, denigrating our nation’s military with a story that just is not true, or rather than is technically true, but misleading to the point of being a bald-faced lie.

Here is the story:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/05/army-discharging-immigrants/762021002/

According to USA Today, the US Army is quietly discharging legal immigrants.  Immigrants, it turns out, are being subjected to background checks, whenever they join the Army, and some of them invariably fail.  Those immigrants who fail their background checks are immediately discharged from the military.

What USA Today does not tell us is that everyone who joins the military – in any branch – are subjected to a background check, and that ANYONE who fails this background check is immediately discharged from the military.  I was actually subjected to TWO background checks – one when I joined the Marine Corps (which qualified me for a secret clearance), and one maybe six years later, while stationed in Bamberg Germany, so I could work in some office – the acronym escapes me – that could potentially contain top-secret information.  I was not given any top-secret information, but just working in a room that could contain top-secret information required a top-secret clearance.  I got that clearance, and for a brief period of time, I worked in that room.

Anyone who joins the military is going to have access to US military weaponry and equipment, and so ANYONE who joins the military has to at least qualify for a classified security clearance.  The military checks to see who qualifies by conducting a background check on everyone who joins, and for what should be obvious reasons, anyone who fails that background check is immediately discharged.  Whether someone is an immigrant, or not, does not matter.

USA Today ran this article to enflame the public, making it sound like the US Army is targeting immigrants.  My wife is an immigrant.  We have many friends and family who are immigrants.  I would take it very personally if the USA Today’s claims were valid, but they are not.

I also take this blatant lie personally.  The USA Today is attacking a branch of service that I served, and that untold millions of Americans – immigrant and natural born Americans alike – have served, and is doing so purely on a false narrative.  The timing could not be worse – they did this on the day after the Fourth of July, before my brisket was even cold.

Thankfully, I do not have a subscription to USA Today, but if I did, I would cancel it.  I urge anyone who has ever served in the military to cancel their USA today subscriptions, and I urge anyone who respects the brave men and women who serve our nation to do the same.

If you are a patriotic American, it is time to shun USA Today.  Tell them once and for all that fake news will not stand.  Let’s hold USA Today accountable for printing such a blatant lie, in a misguided attempt to create discord within our great nation.