The Pentagon pushed back against criticism that it was weeding out foreign-born troops Tuesday and released court filings to show some international recruits in a program that granted citizenship through military service had falsified their background records and were connected to state-sponsored intelligence agencies, which led DoD to believe the program was vulnerable to insider threat.
The filings, from Tiwari v. Mattis, “provide context for you regarding the true national security issues at stake,†said Pentagon spokeswoman Air Force Maj. Carla Gleason. The U.S. District Court Western District of Washington is considering the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of 17 foreign-born military recruits who enlisted through the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program but have not been able to clear additional security requirements the military put in place in 2016 and 2017.
The program has been suspended since 2016 and about 1,000 recruits remain in limbo, unable to enter basic training and at risk of timing out of the program or having their visas expire. Immigration attorneys representing the clients have said the military never put adequate resources in place to process all the applicants and that the delays in screening are a way to shut the program down.
Approximately 10,000 foreign-born troops have earned citizenship through MAVNI, which was put in place to help the military attract critical language and medical skills. In 2017 Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he would like to see the program continued if security issues could be addressed.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/07/17/mavni-troops-falsified-records-were-security-risk-dod-says/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EBB%207-18&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Military%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief
