Immigrant PhD candidate rocked by sudden US Army discharge

[GMDino]

Argue, argue argue...no one looks up information.

https://www.npr.org/2017/07/03/535342867/pentagon-considers-canceling-program-that-recruits-immigrant-soldiers

Quote:The Pentagon is considering pulling out of a deal it made with thousands of noncitizen recruits with specialized skills: Join the military and we'll put you on the fast track to citizenship.

The proposal to dismantle the program would cancel enlistment contracts for many of the foreign-born recruits, leaving about 1,000 of them without legal protection from deportation.

The plan under consideration is laid out in a memo from Pentagon officials to Defense Secretary James Mattis. In the memo, obtained by NPR, high-level personnel and intelligence officials cite security concerns and inadequate vetting of recruits under a program called Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest, or MAVNI.

The memo also cites "the potential threat posed by individuals who may have a higher risk of connections to Foreign Intelligence Services," and it refers to an "elevated" risk of an insider threat.




...


Questions about the program arose last year when officials discovered that some MAVNI recruits had offered false educational credentials, according to a legal brief from the Department of Justice. The brief was filed as part of a lawsuit challenging the Pentagon's decision to freeze the program.


The Pentagon responded to the discovery of some recruits providing fake university degrees by ordering security checks on all recruits in the program and barring new enlistments.

But that 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.

In one of two ongoing lawsuits, several noncitizens recruited under MAVNI and serving in the Army Reserve have sued. They argue that they were promised an expedited path to citizenship but that the Department of Homeland Security, at the behest of the Pentagon, has failed to process their naturalization applications, as required by law.

In the other case, the plaintiffs argue the Pentagon discriminated against naturalized U.S. citizens who were denied security clearances in the first terms of their enlistment. That meant that the military careers of the MAVNI recruits were effectively stalled out because they were unable to attend officer training school, for instance.

That's it.  A few were dishonest with their educational history so they went overboard with "extreme vetting" and the current admin wants to dismantle rather than fix it.

I am sure it has nothing in common with the current administration's views on immigrants.  None.