Veterans to Congress: U.S. Military Readiness Requires DACA Recruits

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Veterans to Congress: U.S. Military Readiness Requires DACA Recruits
BY NICHOLAS BALLASY DECEMBER 25, 2017
RE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politic...daca-recruits/

WASHINGTON – The National Immigration Forum and Veterans for New Americans are calling on congressional leaders to pass a “permanent solution” for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiaries before the Christmas recess begins.

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), veterans argued that DACA recipients are needed in the military.

“DACA recipients and other DREAMer enlistees have critical skills helpful to our military. For example, DACA recipients possess language skills and cultural competencies that support our global strategic interests. They also have critical medical skills and training. To date, over 900 DACA recipients have enlisted in the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) recruitment program because of their valuable language and medical skills,” the veterans wrote in a letter released a week ago.

“Without legislation, about 350 of these DACA recipients in the MAVNI program may lose their ability to join the military if their DACA protections expire while they continue to wait for background checks to be completed,” the letter continued. “Thousands more are expected to volunteer and enlist once legislation is passed. The outlook of our military readiness and national security in 2018 would both greatly benefit from these new recruits. Our years of service in defense of this country also compel us to support a permanent, legislative solution for DACA recipients who wish to serve America.”

On a conference call, retired Army Lt. Col. Margaret Stock, co-chairman of Veterans for New Americans National, said Congress should at least allow DACA beneficiaries currently in the armed services and those waiting for the completion of background checks to remain in the United States while lawmakers debate a solution for all DREAMers.

“I think they should act to fix the problems for the ones who are already in the military – just to clarify though, the Obama administration, they severely limited DACA,” she said in response to a question from PJM. “There were thousands of them who wanted to join the military when the DACA program started but the Obama administration said they wouldn’t allow them to come in unless they could qualify for the MAVNI program, and very few DACAs can meet those strict requirements or could meet the strict requirements of the MAVNI program – about 900 of them did meet the requirements of MAVNI.”

President Trump has rescinded the DACA program, which was instituted via a directive from President Obama. It officially expires in March. Trump has urged Congress to come up with a legislative solution to allow beneficiaries to remain in the country.

Stock described the entire debate over legislation to legalize DREAMers as “ironic” since undocumented immigrants are required to register for the Selective Service.

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These are the military recruits who might be deported under Trump
BY VERA BERGENGRUEN AND FRANCO ORDOÑEZ
RE: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nati...161872568.html

WASHINGTON
Some young immigrants protected by the Obama-era “Dreamer” program who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and enlisted in the military are worried they’ll be deported, after indications from the Trump administration that they could be left without legal protection to stay in the country they signed up to fight for.

With the Pentagon imposing more stringent background checks on immigrant recruits in a program that offers a fast track to citizenship — and considering canceling it altogether — hundreds of foreign-born enlistees are finding themselves in a legal limbo. The situation is especially dire for so-called Dreamers protected by President Barack Obama’s landmark Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which faces an uncertain future under the Trump administration. The program grants legal status to an estimated 750,000 young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents.

Harminder Saini, a 23-year-old DACA recipient who enlisted in the U.S. Army in February 2016, is among those who are encountering growing delays as they wait to be shipped to basic training. Instead, they worry they may be shipped out of the country.

“It’s really a bad situation right now…I’m nervous because I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “It just feels like being chained because of DACA.”

Saini, who came to the U.S. from India when he was 6, is fluent in Punjabi. That allowed him to enlist through the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest program, known as MAVNI, which offers expedited citizenship for immigrants with sought-after language and medical skills. He had already had been granted legal status under DACA, so he was allowed to join the military, one of 359 Dreamers who enlisted in the Army in 2016 alone, according to a Fox News report.

“It’s my way of giving back to this country. They allowed me to stay here and gave me so much,” said Saini, who remembers being held in detention soon after arriving. “With DACA, they gave me an opportunity to work, and I could also help my parents.”

DACA is back on the chopping block again:

If you’re an immigrant who was unlawfully brought to America as a child, you might be one of the more than 600,000 young adults registered under DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. President Trump has flip-flopped on whether he will undo the executive action that then-President Obama used to create the program, but now Texas has threatened to sue if Trump doesn’t undo the action. What’s the future look like for DACA? McClatchy White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez explains.

Per Natalie Fertig McClatchy:

Saini was told he would begin basic training in November, so he dropped out of his junior year at Hunter College in New York City. Nervous about basic training, he went to the gym every morning to prepare. The former history major watched every documentary about the military he could find.

“I was ready to go wherever they wanted to send me,” he said. “If they said the Middle East, I was down with going to the Middle East.”

But November came and went, and he is still waiting. The Army has not given him much information beyond telling him he has yet to pass the new background checks.

“I wish the military would make a decision on this. I wish I could serve,” Saini said. “Living in the shadows all these years has been tough. This was a way to freedom.”

The MAVNI program, which has resulted in citizenship for 10,400 troops since 2009, was put on hold last September. It was opened to DACA recipients in 2014. About 1,000 foreign-born recruits without legal status could face deportation if the Pentagon cancels their contracts to serve, according to an internal Pentagon memo first reported by the Washington Post. The U.S. Army, the only branch that accepts DACA recipients, did not respond to repeated requests for the current number of DACA recruits.

The Pentagon says the increased screening of immigrant recruits is necessary after recent reviews of the program revealed security risks, with some enlistees having engaged in previous criminal activity or posing “a significant counterintelligence threat.” Obama officials started imposing stricter vetting last fall. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has also expressed concerns about the process.

For DACA recruits, the frustration at not being able to begin their military service is worsened by the fear that they could be stripped of the legal status that protects them from deportation.

DACA recipients in the military say they are watching the news closely, waiting to see if Trump will speak out against the 10 states that have threatened to sue if the administration doesn’t phase out Obama’s program.

“People are freaking out,” said William Medeiros, 24, who runs a Facebook group for Dreamers in the military. “I’m worried, I don’t know if they will stop renewing our DACAs.”

Medeiros, who came to the U.S. from Brazil when he was 6, saw the Army as a “light at the end of the tunnel” after his hopes of joining his local police department were dashed.

“I was told that it was basically impossible to obtain a law enforcement career without being a U.S. citizen,” he said.

His Portuguese skills allowed him to enlist through MAVNI in Orlando, Fla., last summer. He is still waiting to be sent to basic training. Medeiros says he will be kicked out of the Army and have his contract cancelled if he is not allowed to ship out to basic training within two years of his enlistment date.

“It’s all I have,” Medeiros said. “I’ve been in the United States since I was 6… Having to go to my home country is going to be hitting rock bottom. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

While the future of the entire program is uncertain, DACA recruits who haven’t shipped to basic training — after which they could fast-track their naturalization – are in the most immediate danger, according to Margaret Stock, a retired Army officer and lawyer who founded the MAVNI program.

“The ones we’re concerned about are [recruits] who haven’t gotten their citizenship yet,” she said. “And those folks could have a big problem because they’re in this precarious situation where DHS won’t let them get their citizenship anymore and they’re not allowed to ship out until they complete these onerous background checks.”

The Trump administration has hinted that it won’t defend DACA against a looming lawsuit from Texas and other states looking to end the popular but controversial program. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told members of Congress last week that the fate of DACA will likely be determined by the courts, perhaps as soon as September, and that attorneys he’s consulted with do not think the program is legally sustainable.

In February, Trump promised to treat the Dreamers “with heart” and said it was a “very, very tough subject.” But last month, Republican state officials from 10 states called on him to stop the program. Kelly has said that while he personally would not rescind the DACA program, he doesn’t expect the administration to defend it in a court challenge.

“This is not a fight that Kelly or [Defense Secretary Jim] Mattis want to pick with the administration,” said Cesar Vargas, an attorney and DACA recipient who is co-director of the Dream Action Coalition, a national organization dedicated to educating people about the DREAM Act. While they see the value in the skilled and highly motivated pool of recruits, he says they are unlikely to stick out their necks for a few hundred DACA recruits, even though “it is breaking an oath” to grant them citizenship in exchange for military service.

Dreamers serving in the military, he said, are likely to be swept up in the bigger fights over immigration and security.

In the confusion over the stalled MAVNI program, many Dreamers have turned to Facebook groups. Many posts are a jumble of enlistment dates, delayed training and a tangle of legal categories, showing the complicated situation for many who see their time running out.

On Medeiros’s Facebook group for DACA recipients who have enlisted in the Army, the fate of the program has been a hot topic.

“What would happen to DACAs who are already enlisted and waiting to be shipped?” posted one concerned member of the group.

In another, a teacher posted a letter to Mattis, asking for clarity for DACA recruits including her 20-year old mentee from the Philippines.

“He had always wanted to serve in the military [and] was happy to wait nine months to go to basic training,” she wrote in the letter to the defense secretary. “That wait expanded to 16 months and now he has been waiting 22 months and the door for him is nearly closed.”

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FACT SHEET: MILITARY ACCESSIONS VITAL TO THE NATIONAL INTEREST (MAVNI)
RE: http://immigrationforum.org/blog/fac...nterest-mavni/

What is MAVNI?

The Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program was authorized by the secretary of defense in November 2008. It’s purpose is to address critical shortages of medical and strategic language personnel in the U.S. armed services by allowing certain qualified noncitizens to enlist in the U.S. military under Section 504(b)(2) of title 10, United States Code.

MAVNI recruits noncitizens in the U.S. whose enlistment is vital to the national interest.

Since 2009, more than 10,400 individuals have enlisted or served in the U.S. military through MAVNI. Approximately 10,000 of those enlistees are still in the service or waiting to serve. On Sept. 30, 2016, the Defense Department authorized the annual recruitment of up to 1,400 enlistees through MAVNI. However, the program is temporarily suspended as the Defense Department is currently not accepting MAVNI applications for fiscal year (FY) 2017.
MAVNI Eligibility Requirements

Applicants for MAVNI must meet all standard requirements to enlist in a branch of the U.S. armed services, as well as the following:

Must be an asylee, refugee, recipient of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), or hold certain nonimmigrant visas, such as the F visa for foreign students in the U.S.;

Must have been in a “valid status” in those categories for two years preceding the enlistment date and have no single absence from the U.S. of 90 days or more during that period;

Must have no pending application for lawful permanent residence; and

If a health care professional, must be recruited specifically to fill specific medical specialties where the military has a critical shortage, meet all qualification criteria for their medical specialty and enlist for at least three years of active duty or six years of Selected Reserve (SELRES) service, among other requirements; or

If an enlisted individual with special language and culture background, must possess capability in at least one of 46 specific critical languages and the associated cultural background, demonstrate language proficiency in a test and oral interview, and enlist for at least three years of active duty or six years of SELRES service.

MAVNI Security Requirements

On Sept. 30, 2016, the Department of Defense introduced new security requirements for MAVNI. Applicants must undergo an extensive security and suitability screening process including an initial screening, continuous monitoring and annual background checks.

Initial Screening: Prior to entering basic training or serving for any period of time, MAVNI applicants must:

Complete a Tier 3 or Tier 5 background investigation;

1. Pass a National Agency Check, which runs the applicant’s name through seven different government and security databases (including the CIA External Name Trace System and the FBI’s Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force);

2. Undergo a counterintelligence interview; and Receive a national security determination by the Department of Defense and earn a favorable military suitability determination by the U.S. military.

3. If negative information is found in the background investigation, which may include having a foreign relative or a family member who worked for a foreign government, the military has the option to administer a polygraph examination or separate itself from the applicant.

Naturalization and MAVNI

4. Upon completing the enlistment process, MAVNI enlistees may apply for U.S. citizenship through an expedited naturalization process that does not require the individual to be a permanent resident (green-card holder).

5. The new security requirements for MAVNI have created a backlog of applicants waiting to start their military service, which impedes their ability to naturalize. The Department of Defense is reportedly considering canceling enlistment contracts for all 1,800 MAVNI enlistees awaiting orders for basic training and halting the program altogether. About 1,000 of those recruits have had their visas expire while awaiting travel orders, which puts them at risk of deportation if their contracts are canceled.