The struggle visible on her face, Victoria Ramirez continues treading water, just barely keeping her head above the surface. The other cadets around her swiftly navigate through the University of Illinois at Chicago pool as they complete their Combat Water Training. Victoria, however, is stationary, forced to remain at that point until granted permission to proceed. Her fight to stay afloat reflects the struggles Victoria faces as an undocumented immigrant enrolled in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, or ROTC.

Victoria, 19, a sophomore — or M2 — at Northeastern Illinois University, participates in the university’s ROTC program in order to afford her education. As the recipient of one of the Army’s few tuition waivers, her first two years of tuition are paid for.

At the close of this year, Victoria may know better if she will be able to continue with the program without a social security number and little financial aid. In order to complete the curriculum and eventually become commissioned as an officer, a student must possess a social security number, according to Major Thomas Burrell IV, assistant professor of military science at Loyola University. Undocumented students may participate in ROTC courses, but normally do not continue on to take M3, or junior level classes because a person’s citizenship must be verified.

Adrift, Victoria is helpless to do much but wait for some sort of solution that would allow her to continue in ROTC with a tuition waiver. Without the army’s financial assistance, Victoria believes that she will need to take a break from school, returning to Northeastern once she has saved up enough money.

A generation lost to service:
“When [people] think of illegal immigrants, they think of people running across borders and breaking laws,” says Lieutenant Colonel Peter Farrell, professor of military ...