USA Today – by Andrew Tilghman, Military Times
A small number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. will have an opportunity to join the military for the first time in decades under a new Department of Defense policy unveiled Thursday.
The new rules will expand an existing program allowing recruiters to target foreign nationals with high-demand skills, mostly rare foreign language expertise or specialized health care training.
For the first time, the program — known as Military Accessions in the National Interest, 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 under a 2012 Obama administration policy known as Deferred Action for Child Arrivals, or DACA.
The new Pentagon policy may be the first phase of a broader government-wide effort 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 use his presidential authority to change the way immigration policies are carried out.
The Pentagon program is capped at 1,500 recruits per year. Officials say it’s unclear how many of those might be unlawful DACA status immigrants as opposed to others who are also eligible for military service under MAVNI, including those with legal, nonpermanent visas such as students or tourists.
Estimates suggest between 1.2 million and 2.1 million children, teenagers and young adults in the U.S. have no legal immigration status but meet the criteria for the DACA program. Those targeted by recruiters under the MAVNI program likely will be immigrants with language skills critical to national security, such as Arabic, Chinese, Pashto or Persian.
But Pentagon officials don’t know how many of those immigrants have actually learned their ancestral language to the proficiency required by the military.
“We’re just not sure how many within that existing population of DACA would have the linguistic skills to qualify,” said one defense official familiar with the policy change. “These are kids who entered the country at a fairly young age and have basically grown up in the United States, so the limit of their language talents would probably be the language that they received at home.”
DACA status is granted by the Department of Homeland Security and includes a background check.
On average, the military recruits about 5,000 noncitizens each year, nearly all of them permanent U.S. residents, or so-called “green card” 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.
After entering military service, foreigners are eligible for expedited U.S. citizenship. Since 2001, more than 92,000 foreign-born service members have become citizens while serving in uniform.
The MAVNI program began in 2008 and remains a pilot program. The Pentagon notified Congress on Thursday that the program, which was due to expire at the end of this fiscal year, will be extended for another two years and will for the first time include DACA-status immigrants.
The military services are not required to accept recruits under MAVNI. In recent years, the Army has been the only service to accept a significant number of recruits under the program. The Air Force has accepted only a few and the Navy and Marine Corps have not sought MAVNI recruits in recent years.
Well..gee..I wonder if I can go and join the Chinese military. Think they’ll let me?
I can’t believe this shit. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY??? When is enough going to be enough? I mean we have just given our country over to foreigners and said “OH WELL!”
Our country is the richest and most powerful country in the world and we are just handing it over without a fight.
Unfrigginbelievable!!!!!!!!
I guess now they’ll just take anybody. Got to have fresh meat for the War Machine. Remember when they only wanted so called “specialists”?
http://www.fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/u-s-army-offers-citizenship-track-for-immigrants-with-specialized-skills/36466
http://www.fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/bloomberg-touts-record-low-murder-rate-as-new-cops-sworn-in/29424
American citizens serve in the Israeli military.
What is your agenda here, Big Dan?
These mother f#@kers hate our guts. Our children cannot even wear a t-shirt with an American flag on it in our schools because it might cause these illegal invaders to commit violence against us.
Now you say you advocate for giving more military training to foreigners who want to kill us. I don’t want to hear about the military of the past because it is exactly that.
This is not our military, it is controlled by the foreign United Nations, who again want to murder, rob, and kill my people and take our nation away from us.
You better do a double take and figure out where your loyalties lie.
It doesnt matter anymore..this is not going to stop. Time to find a new realm, and my belief is in Jesus Christ and I will stand on the rooftops to shout it. Be prepared? Heck yeah. Be trained? heck yeah. Peter was a marksman, he cut off the ear of the soldier with his sword. Be a soldier? yes, but be a soldier for Christ.. I am sorry if my beliefs bother some, but it is truly what I believe. If you dont believe in Jesus, thats ok, my belief will not hurt you at all. I only want freedom, truth, and good for all. I would not take a life unless it threatened my life or those who I love. Another reason to stay out of the middle east. Leave them alone. Nothing is going to change, its only going to get worse. This article is nothing new, I and many others saw it coming long ago. Its just the beginning of the end. This country is not going to repent, but we as individuals can and I do believe our souls will be protected.
The news headlines today read….”Military to allow undocumented immigrants to serve”. Right next to that was the headline…”Army to fire 30,000 troops”. After nearly 8 years of O’bama it all makes perfect sense.
It’s what the Roman Empire did. Eventually Rome itself was sacked by some of my relatives. Those darn Goths!
When they started recruiting foreigners to do their fighting it was the beginning of the end. The GERMAN that led the Teutonburg Massacre and destroyed a Roman Army was originally a Roman soldier. The Romans in all their hubris decided one day to cross the Rein River. Hack Hack! CHOP CHOP. They still are digging up artifacts from that battle so many centuries ago..
So as modern day Romans do you really want to give military training to a bunch of foreigners who hate us? Really? What Moron came up with that plan? HUH???
Maybe this will answer the question as to weather or not they will fire on citizens or not.
Hey REDHORSE, now we know what they intend to do with all the ammo they have purchased.
good point Millard.
Yea damn good point Millard.
WE just watched this government arm and train thousands of terrorist to destroy seven countries, this alone should’ve warned us of what is coming our way, it also should give us insight into how evil this government is.
IF you remember what happened to LIBYA and what is now happening to SYRIA this is the fate of our country, for those of us who pray it’s time to start!
Robert. been praying for a long time while accumulating liberty supplies and tools. Our time will come, and i hope soon.
What’s wrong with now! I’m game and a little rank from my enslavement.
i agree Millard. Like Henry says “when people run out of water and food they will begin to fight”
“also eligible for military service under MAVNI, including those with legal, nonpermanent visas such as students or tourists.”
TOURISTS!!!???
Are you F**KING KIDDING ME???!!! 😡
“Those targeted by recruiters under the MAVNI program likely will be immigrants with language skills critical to national security, such as Arabic, Chinese, Pashto or Persian.”
Unfrigginbelievable!!!!