Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says the recent culling of more than 2,000 immigrant recruits who were in a program that provided a path to citizenship was a result of national security concerns, not due to their immigrant status.
The Pentagon program known as Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest, or MAVNI, began in 2009 as a way to fill a shortage of translators, cultural experts, and medical personnel for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Recently hundreds of foreign recruits either waiting to enlist or already in training were booted from the program, in what immigration advocates alleged was a deliberate effort to rid the military of noncitizens.
But during a Pentagon news conference Tuesday, Mattis said the Defense Department was under a mandate from the inspector general’s office to conduct stricter security reviews and more thorough background checks because of indications the program may have been infiltrated.
“Two years ago, in 2016, an independent IG investigation raised security concerns with MAVNI applicants, resulting in the suspension of new applicants that year,” Mattis said. “DOD has been working diligently to complete the screens that were directed by the IG investigation for those already in the pipeline.”
Roughly 10,000 recruits applied to the program before it was ended in September of 2017. Of that number about 60 percent have made it through the screening process.
“For the roughly 6,000 who have served, are currently serving, or have recently cleared the security process under MAVNI thus far, the U.S. military welcomes them as critical and valued members of our armed forces,” Mattis said.
About 1,200 applicants are still in limbo, waiting to hear if they have passed the security check.
“The issues with the program are not about immigration, they are about national security,” Mattis said. “We need and want every qualified patriot willing to serve and able to serve.”
[Opinion: Immigrants commit fewer crimes, but that’s no case for open borders]
