Pentagon considers canceling program for immigrant troops
NPR reports that the Pentagon program designed to give troops an alternate path to citizenship, Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) is under the gun because some of the 10,000 troops weren’t truthful about their academic certifications.
The recruitment program began in 2009 to attract immigrants with medical or language skills, such as surgeons or Arabic speakers. It allows visa holders, asylees and refugees to bypass the green card process to become U.S. citizens.
The founder of the MAVNI program, retired Lt. Col. Margaret Stock, said the security concerns are overblown. “If you were a bad guy who wanted to infiltrate the Army, you wouldn’t risk the many levels of vetting required in this program,” she said…Three Defense Department officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to discuss the memo publicly, said the Pentagon is trying to balance national security concerns with the military’s needs for specialized skills immigrants can provide. In some cases, the officials said, the Army wasn’t using the program as intended, putting MAVNI recruits in roles that didn’t match their skills.
[…]
[The] screening process has overwhelmed the Army’s resources. According to the Pentagon memo, those security checks have “diverted already constrained Army fiscal and manpower resources from their primary roles.”
Stock said many MAVNI recruits were left in limbo.
“The Army said you can ship to basic training after you complete the background checks. But now they’ve canceled all the background checks so nobody can ship to basic training,” she said.
So as many as a thousand people in uniform might be left with no protections from federal action to deport them when their visas expire.
The Pentagon should keep it’s promise to the troops who haven’t been untruthful and, if the program is too expensive to be worthwhile, they should cancel it, but still keep the promises that they’ve made. It sucks when they unilaterally decide to break faith with veterans, it has happened to all of us at one time or another.
Category: Big Pentagon
I’ve got 3 privates that can’t ship to basic because of this
That’s complete bullshit.
Dunno if I can agree, Jonn. Seems to me that the individuals who did falsify their credentials to enlist may well have enlisted under false pretenses – or in other words, fraudulently. Not sure I want to see DoD reward that kind of “gaming the system”.Hard call.See retraction below. Brain cramp, apparently – or maybe old eyes.
the ones who -didn’t- lie? “…haven’t been untruthful..”
Seems easy to me. They keep their word, we keep ours.
We might close the program to new folks, but he ones in it who kept faith with -us- deserve no less in return.
The ones who -did- enlist fraudulently? Bye.
Agreed (see below for my follow-up comment disavowing the above). But until DEP applicants have been adequately screened, we don’t have any way of knowing whether they’ve been truthful or not.
Plenty of nincompoops born here “forget” to mention felony paper and all sorts of no-gos. I woudl think that the existing screening could encompass the additional items needed.
No heartburn here with giving -any- of the fraudulent enlistees some extra sanction, provided it is clearly forewarned.
Candidate, this is your “get our of jail free” moment. State anything you “forgot” to say,and the worst that happens is you get dropped from the program. After this meeting, falsehoods go directly to -jail-.
If the -recruiter- is complicit in omissions, they too should get smacked.
You C&P’d the line so you must have read it…what’s to disagree with?
Disregard – I apparently missed the “haven’t been untruthful” phrase in the quote, or at least the “un-” prefix.
Unlike some, I’ve never believed myself to be either omniscient or infallible. Which is a good thing, because I just proved above I’m neither. (smile)
“..Welcome to Earth…”
They are DEPs, not Soldiers or veterans yet. They can walk at any time and break that “contract “. So can the government of standards or qualifications change.
Now you got to ask, do you get hit with the DEP loss?
Never was a recruiter (thank God), but losing three bones would have to hurt.
Seems pretty simple to me. If the applicant is truthful, is accepted, and completes obligated service, then grant them their rightfully earned citizenship.
Done.
Don’t see any threat of that being done, AW1Ed. Putting the program on hold to new entrants is far different than telling those already serving, “Sorry – rules have changed.”
Those DEP candidates who are already signed up IMO should be given the chance to either agree to a delay in entry due to enhanced screening time or to withdraw their enlistment contract. They haven’t yet served, so they’re not in the same category as someone who’s already completed part of their obligation and who also signed up honestly.
The hard calls are going to be those who “fudged” their applications and yet still served in the specialty for which they were recruited acceptably well.
DEP I presume means “Delayed Entry Program” correct? Agree, those in the pipeline should be allowed to *cough* amend their applications or bail out. Those who have completed their obligation and served honorably, well, no harm no foul.
Better vetting next time up front.
They are just doing jobs Americans won’t do.
” the many levels of vetting required in this program,”
What does that actually mean? Who does the background checks in A’stan, Iraq, etc.? Who does the background checks on the background checkers?
I enlisted a half dozen or so troops under this program
One who went on to serve 9 combat tours in support of SOF and become the NCOIC of the 09L program
These folks get screened at TS-SCI levels of scrutiny just to enlist
We get a huge bang-for-the-buck out of this program
Sounds like jobs American could use. I mean our armed forces is so tiny and its competitive to get in, why are we out sourcing that now? I too served with non citizen military while in and I would rather see Americans in those positions.
They usually bring some sort of vital skill – usually language – to the military.
Good chance of that. Not too many folks in the US have native-level Pashto language proficiency, for example.
Most of the (handful) of immigrant enlistees I knew while on active duty were uber-patriots for the USA and -fine- soldiers. I -want- folks like that on my side, in my squad.
Too many American youth are too fat, too lazy and plain stupid to actually meet the minimum requirements of military service. If we find loyal recruits that wish to serve and use this as a pathway to citizenship I’m all for it.
One of the best paratroopers I ever served with was a Columbian who learned english just enough to make it through training (from what I was told, they sent him to english classes at Benning). Whenever his english skills held him back in any conversation while in uniform you could visually see the dishonor he felt for not being good enough to wear our uniform with our flag on it. He also got his citizenship completed on his 1st tour to the stan in 05. Makes me damn proud to call him an American.
I hit BCT with seven recruits fresh in from Lackland. They weren’t just going through Boot to become soldiers, but to become citizens. In my opinion, it’s the best way to allow foreigners to become Americans.
Heinlein and Kratman both posit that maybe -everyone- should have to -earn- full citizenship.
I can see the logic. One tends to -value- what one has paid for dearly. Also, they would be -well- prepared to defend it.
This is typical of the media presenting a vaguely titled piece that is meant to trigger the left.
At a glance it looks like the military is trying to discourage non-citizens from enlisting. They are going to get their asses all in the air about how the Military has became Xenophobic under the Trump.
The program under review seems to be limited to certain countries, probably the same countries who are part of the travel ban.
It makes sense to review the vetting and procedures, since ISIS knows its a perfect opportunity to get operatives in the US under the guise of being linguists.
The vast majority of non-citizens I knew who enlisted were from Mexico or the Phillipines. They will not be affected by this at all.
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