While the high school class of 2014 will reportedly face more difficulty qualifying for the armed services than ever in the 40-year history of the all-volunteer force, a new Department of Defense policy unveiled Thursday shows that the DoD is going out of its way to recruit undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.
It's part of an expansion of the program known as Military Accessions in the National Interest (MANVI), and for the first time, the program "will be open to immigrants without a proper visa if they came to the U.S. with their parents before age 16," reported the Military Times. Recruits must also "be approved under a 2012 Obama administration policy known as Deferred Action for Child Arrivals, or DACA."
New recruits are capped at 1,500 per year for both legal and illegal immigrants, and officials said it's not known how many will be illegal. Recruiters are targeting immigrants with language skills "critical to national security, such as Arabic, Chinese, Pashto or Persian."
Homeland Security reportedly performs a background check prior to being granted DACA status.
But at the same time the Pentagon is launching a program to recruit undocumented immigrants who may speak a particular language, high school graduates are being turned away from the services at a higher rate than ever, reported the Kansas City Star.
"All this belt-tightening has caused the Department of Defense to chase after the same successful, highly motivated high school graduates that everyone else is chasing," Mike Byrd, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and ROTC instructor, told the Kansas City Star.
"It's very expensive to recruit," he added. "We don't have the flexibility we once had to get it wrong with one kid and hope the next one works out."
The Pentagon's budget plan for next year will force reductions on all branches except for the Navy, said Jessica L. Wright, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness at the DoD.
It's no longer enough to simply display patriotism and a willingness to serve your country - competition is now the name of the game.
The Military Times speculates that the new Pentagon program could be the first phase of a "broader government-wide effort to ease pressure on immigrants and create new paths to citizenship."
"President Obama, frustrated with the failure of Congress to pass any substantial immigration reform, has vowed to aggressively use his presidential authority to change the way immigration policies are carried out," MT reports.
According to a DoD fact sheet regarding the MANVI program, some 24,000 non-citizens serve on active duty, and about 5,000 non-citizens enlist each year, which the DoD says is a practice dating back to at least the Revolutionary War.
Those who do serve under the MANVI program are eligible for "expedited citizenship" under a July 2002 Executive Order.
