Here we go again with the media advocating for the MAVNI program:
This image shows a portion of a U.S. Army document submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in September 2018 which lists 502 service members who enlisted under the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest recruiting program, and who were discharged between July 2017 and July 2018. The document was unsealed at the request of The Associated Press, which has interviewed more than a dozen recruits from countries such as Brazil, Pakistan, Iran, China and Mongolia who said they were devastated by their unexpected discharges or canceled contracts. U.S. ARMY VIA AP
Over the course of 12 months, the U.S. Army discharged more than 500 immigrant enlistees who were recruited across the globe for their language or medical skills and promised a fast track to citizenship in exchange for their service, The Associated Press has found.
The decade-old Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest recruiting program was put on hold in 2016 amid concerns that immigrant recruits were not being screened sufficiently. The Army began booting out those enlistees last year without explanation .
The AP has interviewed more than a dozen recruits from countries such as Brazil, Pakistan, Iran, China and Mongolia who all said they were devastated by their unexpected discharges or canceled contracts.
Until now, it’s been unclear how many were discharged and for what reason because the Army has refused to discuss specific cases. But the Army’s own list, submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last month, says 502 service members who enlisted under MAVNI were discharged between July 2017 and July 2018.
The list, which was unsealed this week after a request from the AP, offers “refuse to enlist” as the reason for expelling two-thirds of the recruits. That is the reason given for 35 percent of enlistee discharges Army-wide, according to a research study posted on a Defense Department website.
But at least one recruit whose paperwork said he was being discharged from the program for that reason said it was not accurate. [Associated Press]
You can read more at the link, but according to documents most of these MAVNI recruits ended up refusing to enlist. Plus I like how the Associated Press reporters did not mention in the article the espionage threat potential from these recruits. Just last month a Chinese agent who was a MAVNI recruit was arrested:
The complaint charges Ji with one count of knowingly acting in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the Attorney General. He will make an initial court appearance today at 5:00 p.m. EDT (4:00 p.m. CDT) before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael T. Mason in Courtroom 2266 of the Everett M. Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago.
According to the complaint, Ji was born in China and arrived in the United States in 2013 on an F1 Visa, for the purpose of studying electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. In 2016, Ji enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves as an E4 Specialist under the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program, which authorizes the U.S. Armed Forces to recruit certain legal aliens whose skills are considered vital to the national interest. In his application to participate in the MAVNI program, Ji specifically denied having had contact with a foreign government within the past seven years, the complaint states. In a subsequent interview with a U.S. Army officer, Ji again failed to disclose his relationship and contacts with the intelligence officer, the charge alleges. [Department of Justice]
