Report: 'Undocumented Immigrants' Will Be Able to 'Join the Military'
Report: 'Undocumented Immigrants' Will Be Able to 'Join the Military'
5:35 PM, May 30, 2014 • By DANIEL HALPER
The Huffington Post reports that the "Obama Administration Plans To Let Some Young Undocumented Immigrants Join The Military." The plans have been approved by the Pentagon.
"Pentagon officials have approved a policy that would allow a limited group of undocumented young people who came to the U.S. as children to enlist in the military, opening up a path for them to eventually become citizens, The Huffington Post has learned," reports the liberal website.
The move, which has not been formally announced by the Obama administration, would affect some of the roughly 550,000 undocumented young people granted the ability to remain in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, many of whom have pled with the government to allow them to enlist.
Immigrants in the country legally can enlist in the military, and through their service, they can receive expedited naturalization as U.S. citizens. More than 89,000 service members have gained citizenship since September 2002, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. But young undocumented immigrants, often referred to as Dreamers, cannot currently enlist, even if they have been granted work authorization and the ability to remain in the country under DACA.
The new change, under a Pentagon recruitment plan called Military Accessions Vital to National Interest, would allow some undocumented immigrants with critical language or medical skills to enlist in the armed forces -- considerably limiting the number of Dreamers who would be eligible. Roughly 3,000 legal immigrants have enlisted through the MAVNI program since 2009, and now the program will be open to those who are in the country illegally.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...ry_793968.html
Report: Pentagon to Allow Some Illegal Immigrants to Enlist
by Tony Lee 31 May 2014, 7:30 AM PDT 465 post a comment
breitbart
http://cdn.breitbart.com/mediaserver...et-reuters.jpg
President Barack Obama's Defense Department will reportedly allow some illegal immigrants to enlist in the military, where they will potentially be put on an expedited path to citizenship.
According to a Friday report in the Huffington Post, "Pentagon officials have approved a policy that would allow a limited group" of illegal immigrant DREAMers "to enlist in the military" under the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest (MAVNI) pilot program.
The outlet reported that the Obama administration has not "formally announced" the decision, which would apply to illegal immigrants who have been granted temporary amnesty under Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
As Breitbart News reported two weeks ago, Jessica Wright, the Acting Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon, testified that the Obama administration was working with the Department of Justice and the Defense Department about expanding the MAVNI program to include some illegal immigrant DREAMers. She said the administration would have a more "affirmative" answer by the end of the summer.
Testifying at a Senate Subcommittee hearing in Chicago on "Immigrant Enlistment," Wright said the MAVNI program allowed those with "very specific skills" to enroll. Around 3,000 medical professionals and those fluent in various languages have qualified, but Wright "said that Spanish was not one of the languages that is considered 'vital to the national interest' because, 'we have a number of Spanish speakers within our military.'"
DREAMers cannot currently enlist in the military, and the Huffington Post reported that the administrative change would allow some illegal immigrants "with critical language or medical skills to enlist in the armed forces -- considerably limiting the number of Dreamers who would be eligible." It is unclear whether the Obama administration will now consider Spanish skills to be something that is "vital to the national interest" for the purposes of MAVNI.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...ants-to-Enlist
