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The electrical engineering student, who did not want his name to be revealed for fear of retaliation when he returned to Pakistan, "could pose a security risk," reads the document now unclassified.
But we do not know exactly what this risk is. The document simply mentions "incomplete data and record checks". And in the "Foreign Ties" section, the interviewer notes that "the student's mobile phone case is an American flag and that he's wearing an American sticker on his car."
The young man is part of a growing number of immigrants who are turning to the courts to fight against their rejection by the military, according to a lawyer who launched a program to recruit recruits. Talented foreigners in the US Army. The military says that the program she had embarked on, which promised accelerated citizenship in exchange for service, had become a security risk and that the plaintiffs needed a tighter audit. Critics accuse the Pentagon of xenophobia, building on foreigners' fear at the expense of an army that is struggling to find enough recruits, and talented ones.
It is unclear how many foreign recruits were rejected or returned. a number of them have filed lawsuits in the country to challenge the decision. The Pentagon says that 10,000 people were initially recruited under the MAVNI (Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest) program, designed to recruit talented and specialized recruits who could not only provide essential expertise in foreign campaigns, but also help fill the gaps.
"I found [joining the Army] the most honorable way to become a citizen of a country I've loved since the age of five," said the youngster. Pakistani to CNN. telephone interview. He enrolled in the army in April 2016, asking to be a generator mechanic. "I had a deep loyalty to the United States since I was a kid, it was like a fairy to me," he said.
Like many others, this young man was kept in limbo with little or no information until he was finally told that he was rejected . Now, not only will the student not be able to enlist, but his path to citizenship is also blocked, with a visa expiring in six months and an imminent potential deportation.
In one way, he was luckier than others who suffered the same fate: The student is one of the few who saw the official reason for his dismissal in black and white, in documents obtained through a freedom of information Law enforcement. Most are simply told by the recruiters that they have failed to check the increasingly strict track record over the last two years.
Red Security Flags
The MAVNI program was closed in late 2016, during the last days of the Obama administration, because it was tried " vulnerable to an unacceptable level of risk of internal threats such as espionage, terrorism and other criminal activities ". Pentagon officials described several major problems that were uncovered in the process, arguing that landfills do not consist of purging immigrant recruits from the ranks of the military – the vast majority of whom come from Africa and from Africa. Asia – but red security. According to Army spokesman, Lt. Col. Nina Hill, "the policies of the Department of Defense and the Army require that all recruits be subject to aptitude examination as part of the military accession process. "One aspect of the relevance review is a security check. Any recruit, including those recruited through the MAVNI program, who receives unfavorable security screening is deemed unfit for military service and is discharged administratively."
Margaret Stock, a program founder as well as a retired lieutenant-colonel and immigration lawyer, accuses the Pentagon's "incompetent bureaucrats" of destroying a formidable talent pool and taking advantage of An anti-immigrant climate to create an incredibly high bar for foreign recruits to join the Army and put themselves on the path to citizenship.
'The Fear of Aliens & # 39;
"It's a fear of aliens, it's a couple of Pentagon bureaucrats who do not want strangers in their ranks," Stock told CNN. "Pentagon people who think [the Army is] a job program for poor Americans."
The new background checks of "extreme filtering" have created what Stock says is an accumulation of candidates for a decade. But rather than admit that they do not have the resources to treat everyone, she says, the army is getting rid of the recruits.
Few things flow directly from the Trump administration and its severe immigration policies. Stock points at the Office of the Under-Secretary of Defense for staff and preparation. A new regulation by Defense Minister James Mattis states that to obtain accelerated citizenship, one of them must serve for 180 days. Of course, the number of those who arrive at the training camp has dried up as a result of the stricter background checks.
"It's collapse, they took a system that worked well and they broke it," Stock said. "No more obstacles and funding none of the obstacles, genuine national security means welcoming immigrants who will help our national security."
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