US Army quietly discharging immigrant recruits

I have read the program requirements. I also qualified my comments regarding the volunteer’s performance, indicating the obligations incurred by both parties. Each of these military members is a legal resident of the US. I suspect Additional info will emerge as to the nature of the actions; as this was an initial press report.

SSG Robert Webster - Why do you think we are not bound to fulfill what we said we would here? What did these applicants do that negated their contract with the Army? From what I can tell, it sounds like the government failed to do its due diligence in completely the background checks - that's on the government, not on the applicants. How is it reasonable to cancel their contracts for governmental failure?

MAJ Bryan Zeski - Really? Just two examples as given in the story and the basic requisite requirements:
"An Iranian citizen who came to the U.S. for a graduate degree in engineering told the AP that he enlisted in the program hoping to gain medical training."
And -
"The AP spoke with a 26-year-old woman from Dominica who said she proudly enlisted in the immigrant recruitment program in 2016 while earning her nursing degree. She said she drilled each month with her reserve unit, which gave her an award, and had been awaiting a date to start basic training.

MILITARY ACCESSIONS VITAL TO THE NATIONAL INTEREST
MAVNI INFORMATION SHEET FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
goarmy.com/mavni
If you are a health care professional licensed and residing in the United States, you can earn a commission as an Army Officer and get on the fast track to U.S. citizenship. Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) is a recruiting program that allows legal non-citizens with in-demand skills to join the Army in exchange for expedited U.S. citizenship.
Individuals in this program must serve for either three years on active duty, or six years in the Army Reserve.
EXPEDITED CITIZENSHIP
Individuals who join this program are able to move from non-immigrant visa or asylee/refugee/TPS, directly to U.S. citizenship, bypassing the Green Card process.
The military is the only employer that can offer expedited citizenship. Only military service members can naturalize without first obtaining a Green Card.
PROGRAM CRITERIA
1. Applicants must be in one of the following categories at the time of their enlistment: *Non-immigrant categories E, F, H, I, J, K, L, M, O, P, Q, R, S, T, TC, TD, TN, U OR V *Asylee, refugee, Temporary Protected Status (TPS)
*Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
2. Applicants must legally reside in the United States for a minimum of two years prior to commissioning (excluding DACA) without a single absence from the country lasting longer than 90 days.
3. Applicants must receive qualifying scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) and an English language proficiency test. APPLICANTS MUST ALSO BE FULLY LICENSED IN THE UNITED STATES. (**My emphasis, added.**)
CURRENT MEDICAL SPECIALTIES RECRUITED
Regular Army (Active Duty): Comprehensive Dentist, Oral Surgeon, Preventive Medicine, Anesthesiologist, Pediatrician, Psychiatrist, Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, General Surgeon, Emergency Medicine, Nuclear Medical Science Officer, Entomologist, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, Nurse Anesthetist
Army Reserve: General Dentist, Comprehensive Dentist, Prosthodontist, Oral Surgeon, Preventive Medicine, Urologist, Anesthesiologist, Ophthalmologist, Otolaryngologist (ENT), Psychiatrist, Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, General Surgeon, Thoracic Surgeon, Orthopedic Surgeon, Emergency Medicine, Entomologist, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Physician Assistant, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner
For Army Reserve only: health care professionals in their final year of residency may be eligible to apply to the MAVNI program.
PROGRAM BENEFITS
*Bypass the Green Card process and gain U.S. citizenship
*Attend high-quality training and gain opportunities for advanced schooling
*Gain experience in trauma settings
*Increase your leadership skills
*Earn a competitive salary
WHAT CURRENT SOLDIERS SAY ABOUT THE PROGRAM
“MAVNI allowed me to grow in my medical training. It made me a better physician and human being. Professionally, I am growing day by day. I am becoming an efficient leader in my civilian and military career. The U.S. Army keeps my skills up and pushes me to excel as a physician and as an Officer.”
“I can’t stress enough how I am truly blessed to be a part of the U.S. Army. MAVNI opened the door for me to pursue a higher career. In addition, the U.S. Army gives me fabulous clinical experience that I would not have on the civilian side.”
If you are interested in the MAVNI Health Care Professionals program, please visit your local recruiter. Visit goarmy.com/mavni for more information.


I will no even go into the 1 year cut off information, nor the 3 year (actually 2 year) extension for them to start Basic which is or has come to an end. And the program was 'suspended' AND defunded in 2016 during President Obama's administration, so if you want to place part of the blame on the politicians, please blame the correct ones.
The program was closed prior to President Trump even being elected, much less him taking office and the press tries to blame President Trump.
MAVNI program suspended and defunded as of 24 June 2016,
2016 Election held on 8 November 2016, and
Donald Trump takes office on 20 January 2017.

https://mavnicenter.com/assets/uploads/files/ [login to see] 75-mavni-amedd.pdf?v=cpqfaq656e2

SSG Robert Webster - I realize that some people think that everything revolves around President Trump - but if you read what I wrote, I said nothing about assigning blame to him - only to the United States government as a whole. Now, whoever is in charge is the one who should fix it, in my opinion.

President Trump IS NOT the United States. He is a representative of it. The United States is the entity I blame here, not President Trump.

As for the requirements you listed... if the people were not qualified for the program, then why would the recruiters bring them in to the program? Again, that's a failure on the part of the government. If they weren't qualified, they should have just said, "no." But, once we said "yes", we incurred that obligation.

And, if they didn't go to basic, due to background check delays, that is also not their issue. It's a problem on the part of the government. Unless there is something they did that was illegal or they lied about something, then we took them in and said "ok" to whatever their situation was. We made that obligation freely. We shouldn't go back on it - regardless of who is in charge.

1LT (Join to see) Where does it say they "failed" their background checks? From what I read, it says that the background checks were never completed due to government issues - not due to any issues on the applicants.

Do you have alternate sources that have this info? If so, please provide them.

Otherwise, do you think that the US has an obligation, based on contract and integrity, to follow through with completing the background checks and granting these folks what we promised them?

Hello MAJ,
I agree the US has an obligation to follow through on its promises. Of course those promises come with a lot of criteria and caveats which we have all had to abide by in our service. My sources in addition to the article are mostly Mike Lyons who is a CBS military analyst. I have come to trust him as a resource over the years, he has not flinched at calling balls and strikes on the government and military. The information from him is that these recruits were flagged on their background checks for various reasons. And my 2 cents here is that failing a background check is not a criminal charge of some kind. The purpose of a background investigation is simply to maintain security- not necessarily to damn the individual. That is why the legal standard of due process is not required.
As for the expulsion of SMs and new recruits due to a failure to complete the investigations: I just see the second hand reference in the article. That the journalist (I use the term journalist loosely here) wasn’t curious enough to follow up on “the DoD said they didn’t complete my background” with more information tells me he didn’t bother to verify those statements or clarify what that even meant. If I were interviewing a bunch of people recently fired from Chipotle I would expect their stories to involve some vague assertions as well.
On the other hand, DoD is a big, often bumbling part of our big bumbling government and I would not put it past them to just completely drop the ball on a large tasking like backgrounds.
So this still leaves me wanting more journalistic curiosity and rigor from the writer- of my DoD dropped the ball I want to know- in some detail.
The writer showed his biased hand in the headline “ US Army QUIETLY discharging immigrant recruits”. Just the headline is meant to lead us to believe something sinister is being done because it was done “quietly”. EVERY recruit EVER to fiala background was discharged “quietly”. Jodie on the block was discharged quietly before he became our nemesis talking to our girl back home in half the cadences we learned in basic!
VR

1LT (Join to see) - If these folks were let go because they couldn't get a clearance, so be it. But, I'd like to see the evidence of that. If a person is denied clearance, there should be a record of that denial, right?

As for Mr. Lyons, I don't know him or his credibility - but if he's produced some evidence about the situation, I'd like to see it presented. That's what good journalists do, right? Find evidence and present it.

If they were let go from the program because of something in their background, then I have no issue with that. But, if that's the case, their lawsuit should be pretty open and shut - and given the fact that it's been ongoing for a year leads me to believe that it isn't that simple. If it were, the government would present it's case in court, the judge would say, "Yup, ok, you didn't pass the background check. Case closed."