The American Civil Liberties Union is accusing the Department of Defense of failing to end unlawful minimum service requirements instituted under former President Donald Trump that ended the expedited path to citizenship for foreign-born members of the military.
In 2017, Trump eliminated the policy granting expedited citizenship to noncitizens serving in the military. Under the Trump-era guidelines, which have continued under President Joe Biden, service members are required to serve at least six months before being eligible for the military service-based path to citizenship. The ACLU cited a previous court decision that found these minimum service requirements to be unlawful and is accusing the Department of Defense of noncompliance.
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“Our clients are deeply dismayed that the Pentagon continues to block military service members’ path to citizenship in direct defiance of the court’s order and in violation of federal law,” Scarlet Kim, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project, said in a Wednesday statement. “We’ve repeatedly presented the Pentagon with evidence of its non-compliance and proposed reasonable solutions. … Instead, the Pentagon has done virtually nothing and subjected service members to Kafkaesque ordeals that have further delayed their attempts to become U.S. citizens as Congress promised.”
In August 2020, U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle ruled that the requirements were indeed unlawful, saying, “Not only is DOD prohibited from considering anything beyond an enlistee’s past service record in determining whether he or she has served honorably, but upon receipt of a request to certify an N-426 by a noncitizen who has satisfied the one day of qualifying service, DOD must make the required determination.”
The ACLU is urging the Pentagon to comply with the previous federal court rulings, alleging that the Pentagon is putting military men and women through “Kafkaesque ordeals” in their attempts to become U.S. citizens.
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Approximately 24,000 noncitizens served in the U.S. military in 2012, and roughly 5,000 legal permanent residents enlist every year, according to Defense Department data reviewed by the National Immigration Forum.
The Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
