“The military is in need of the unique and vital skills foreign-born recruits have to offer. These are people who want to serve this country, they want to belong and have a stake in this country. They want to defend this country, and they want to call the United States home.”
The Washington Post reported in September that the Army had ended enlistment contracts for hundreds of foreign-born recruits, leading to a risk of deportation for some. Citing several affected recruits and former officials familiar with the situation, the contracts were ended so recruiters could focus on individuals who could potentially move more quickly through the time-intensive enlistment process.
Many of the recruits were part of a previous push to attract skilled immigrants in fields such as medicine and language into the military in exchange for fast-tracked citizenship. The Military Accessions Vital to National Interest or MAVNI program began in 2009 and aimed to recruit “certain legal aliens whose skills are considered to be vital to the national interest,” according to the Defense Department website.
Margaret Stock, a retired Army officer, and immigration lawyer in Alaska, who led the creation of the immigration recruitment program, has received dozens of frantic messages from recruits in response to the decision. She said hundreds could be affected.
MAVNI Pilot Program
The MAVNI Pilot program has not always worked as intended. The program, which is renewed on a yearly basis, has been suspended several times since 2009 for security reviews and internal questions about its efficiency. Pentagon reviews of the program point to dissatisfaction with some recruits over their specialties being underutilized, or by being placed into jobs unrelated to their skills.
The MAVNI program was the subject of scrutiny last year when officials heightened security screenings for participants.
The Defense Department, under then-Secretary Ash Carter, suspended the MAVNI program last September after an internal investigation into the security vulnerabilities and possible foreign infiltrators in the program, according to the DOD, though it remains unclear whether any threats have ever materialized.
Although the military says it benefits from these recruits, they can generate a disproportionate amount of work for recruiters who must navigate regulations and shifting policies. The layered security checks can add months or years to the enlistment process, frustrating recruiters who must meet strictly enforced goals by quickly processing recruits.
The MAVNI program was the subject of scrutiny last year when officials heightened security screenings for participants.
Then in a July memo to Defense Secretary James Mattis, personnel and intelligence officials recommended canceling the enlistment contracts for the recruits awaiting basic training and then halting the program altogether.
Individuals in the program, the officials said, “may have a higher risk of connections to Foreign Intelligence Services.” The officials also said the heightened security screenings imposed last year had taxed the Army’s already constrained resources.
Extra resources are often devoted to the background investigations of recruits with knowledge of highly sought after languages, such as Mandarin Chinese and Pashto, but who were also born in areas that garner extra scrutiny during the investigative process. This was reported in a recent DOD review.
The Defense Department froze the MAVNI program to review it further. Pentagon concerns over security and recruits not being assigned to jobs that utilize the special skills for which they were recruited are valid. Our military leaders have a fundamental responsibility to make sure those who take the oath, “will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” are fully committed.
I see nothing wrong with the DOD addressing the overall ‘health’ of a program making sure it is implemented and managed properly, but to cancel it because of ‘administrative burdens,’ in my view, sends the wrong message entirely.
Special Operations Command, which specializes in missions to train and advise foreign militaries and militias, has been a vocal supporter of the program since its onset.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia implored Defense Secretary James Mattis not to cancel the program and threatened a legislative backlash.
“Military recruits in the MAVNI program should not have to wonder whether the United States will honor the contract they signed,” he wrote in a letter to Mattis. “If we fail to uphold the contracts we have made with MAVNI applicants, this will not only have a significantly deleterious effect on recruiting, it will also be met with a strong, swift Congressional reaction.”
Valuable use within Special Operations Command
Special Operations Command, which specializes in missions to train and advise foreign militaries and militias, has been a vocal supporter of the program since its onset. Experts say the relatively small number of recruits in the MAVNI program possess skills, such as speaking foreign languages that are highly sought after, and are crucial for prioritized Special Operations assignments. Since its implementation, the MAVNI program has resulted in the recruitment of nearly 11,000 foreign-born recruits, mostly slated to join the Army.
Special operators spend time and resources to groom culturally attuned translators to become their eyes and ears in often hostile environments, where trust can mean the difference between mission success and failure. Translators with American insight are “far and away” the most valuable on the battlefield. They can bridge cultural divides and explain why locals are behaving in a certain way that US troops can understand.
One such translator, Sgt. Saral K. Shrestha, a Nepalese native and MAVNI recruit, was tapped by the Army’s 3rd Special Forces Group for his fluency in Urdu on a deployment to Afghanistan. He would later win the Army’s soldier of the year competition in 2012.
An Air Force Special Operations information page listing vital languages overlaps with global military operations. Slots in fiscal years 2015 and 2016 for French, Arabic, Korean, Polish, Swahili, and Somali are listed as filled. The Air Force is still looking for Urdu speakers, according to the information page. Those languages dovetail with ongoing missions against the Islamic State and reinforcing NATO allies against mounting Russian aggression.
Reversing Course – Major Changes to MAVNI
“While the Department recognizes the value of expedited U.S. citizenship achieved through military service, it is in the national interest to ensure all current and prospective service members complete security and suitability screening prior to naturalization,” Pentagon officials said in a statement.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon recently, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis indicated that he supports reactivating a program designed to attract foreign military recruits who agree to serve in exchange for fast-tracked US citizenship. “We are taking the steps obviously to save the program if it can be saved,” Mattis said. “And I believe it can.”
Mattis’ remarks are a sign that the Department of Defense has backed away from previous recommendations to suspend the program entirely and cancel contracts of about 1800 recruits awaiting basic training.
Policy changes announced by the Department of Defense reflect lessons learned from the MAVNI Pilot program. Effective immediately, recruits or Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs) must complete a background check and receive a favorable military security suitability determination (MSSD) before entry in the active, reserve, or guard service.
This is a change from the current policy, which allowed LPR recruits to ship to initial basic training as long as their background investigation had been initiated, and they had cleared all other entry screening requirements.
The changes, which begin immediately, will affect about 10,000 immigrants in the program, mostly in the Army.
Also, for a foreign national entering service to receive a certification of honorable service for purposes of expedited naturalization (citizenship), they must complete 180 consecutive days of active duty service or one year of service in the selected reserve. This is a change from the certification of honorable service troops used to receive after one day of service to start expedited naturalization.
The changes, which begin immediately, will affect about 10,000 immigrants in the program, mostly in the Army.
In my opinion, MAVNI is a good program. The military is in need of the unique and vital skills foreign-born recruits have to offer. These are people who want to serve this country, they want to belong and have a stake in this country. They want to defend this country, and they want to call the United States home.
My professional career, as well as my husband’s military career, was spent working with men and women whose diverse backgrounds, cultures, languages, talents, and expertise spanned the globe. Their dedication and unique service to our military contributed to our mission success.
The MAVNI program makes us stronger, and we are better for it.
