Can Aliens Gain Citizenship By Service In The Military

A small number of undocumented immigrants in the U.Due south. will have an opportunity to join the armed forces for the first time in decades nether a new Department of Defense policy unveiled Th.

The new rules volition expand an existing program allowing recruiters to target foreign nationals with high-demand skills, more often than not rare foreign language expertise or specialized wellness intendance training.

For the offset time, the program — known equally Military Accessions in the National Involvement, or MAVNI — will be open to immigrants without a proper visa if they came to the U.S. with their parents before age 16. More specifically, they must be approved nether a 2012 Obama administration policy known equally Deferred Action for Kid Arrivals, or DACA.

The new Pentagon policy may exist the outset stage of a broader government-wide try to ease pressure on immigrants and create new paths to citizenship. President Barack Obama, frustrated with the failure of Congress to pass any substantial immigration reform, has vowed to aggressively apply his presidential dominance to change the way immigration policies are carried out.

The Pentagon program is capped at 1,500 recruits per twelvemonth. Officials say information technology'due south unclear how many of those might be unlawful DACA status immigrants equally opposed to others who are too eligible for military service under MAVNI, including those with legal, nonpermanent visas such as students or tourists.

Estimates suggest betwixt one.two million and 2.1 million children, teenagers and young adults in the U.South. have no legal clearing status only meet the criteria for the DACA program. Those targeted by recruiters nether the MAVNI program likely volition exist immigrants with language skills critical to national security, such equally Standard arabic, Chinese, Pashto or Persian.

Simply Pentagon officials don't know how many of those immigrants have actually learned their ancestral language to the proficiency required by the armed services.

"We're only non sure how many within that existing population of DACA would accept the linguistic skills to qualify," said one defense force official familiar with the policy change. "These are kids who entered the country at a fairly young age and have basically grown upwards in the Usa, so the limit of their language talents would probably be the language that they received at habitation."

DACA condition is granted past the Department of Homeland Security and includes a groundwork check.

On average, the military recruits about 5,000 noncitizens each year, nearly all of them permanent U.S. residents, or so-called "green carte" holders. Starting in 2006, the military began accepting some foreigners with nonpermanent visas, such as students or tourists, if they had special skills that are highly valued.

Later entering military service, foreigners are eligible for expedited U.S. citizenship. Since 2001, more than than 92,000 foreign-born service members take go citizens while serving in uniform.

The MAVNI program began in 2008 and remains a pilot program. The Pentagon notified Congress on Th that the programme, which was due to expire at the cease of this fiscal twelvemonth, volition be extended for another two years and will for the first time include DACA-status immigrants.

The military services are not required to have recruits under MAVNI. In recent years, the Army has been the only service to accept a pregnant number of recruits under the program. The Air Strength has accepted only a few and the Navy and Marine Corps have not sought MAVNI recruits in recent years.

Can Aliens Gain Citizenship By Service In The Military,

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/25/policy-to-allow-undocumented-immigrants-in-military/16225135/

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