The Center for Migration and Development will be holding an event on “Immigrants in the Military.” The discussion will take place in the Friend Center Auditorium 101 on February 2, 2013, from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Non-citizen recruits are often referred to as “green cards soldiers” and if the latest figures are any indication, they are enlisting in the military in droves. Although non-citizens are able to join the military, they must have legal permanent residency status to enlist – unless the Secretary of Defense determines that “such enlistment is vital to the national interest.” Undocumented immigrants are not allowed to join.

One of the advantages of non-citizens joining the military is an accelerated road to citizenship, compared to the typical track for civilians, which can take anywhere from two to ten years. This was the result of congressional legislation to boost military recruitment after September 11th, including a 2002 presidential order that allowed non-citizens in the military to receive accelerated citizenship. Based on recent Department of Defense statistics, non-citizens currently join the military at a rate of about 8,000 per year, with a record-setting number of military members being naturalized in 2010. According to the Associated Press, there were close to 17,000 non-citizens on active duty last year. More Latino military members have died in Iraq than any other minority group.

Naturalization of non-citizen military still continues to be a controversial subject, rooted in today’s deeply divisive immigration debates. In 2011, the Military Families Act was introduced in the House of Representatives. The bill would have amended the Immigration and Nationality Act and authorized naturalization for immediate family members of non-citizen military members who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The parents, spouses, and children of active non-citizen U.S. military would have been granted legal status if they were residing in the U.S. illegally. The bill died in Congress with little fanfare: it points to the fact that for many people, undocumented immigrants continue to be a “third rail” in U.S. politics – regardless of military service.

In September 2012, the Pentagon reopened a program to allow legal immigrants, as well as those on temporary visas, with special skills to enlist in the military. Immigrants with certain language and medical skills were especially encouraged to join, in the hopes that non-citizen recruits would help fill the gap between the military’s needs and the qualifications of their existing military members. Native speakers were sought for 44 languages, including dialects spoken in Cambodia-Khmer, Afghanistan, South Asia, and West Africa. Non-citizens in the program who served their entire term would be granted citizenship.

The program, called the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (or Mavni), had been put on hiatus after the 2009 shooting in Fort Hood, Texas, which sparked a comprehensive security review into military recruitment. Advocates for the reinstatement of the program pointed to the fact that immigrant military members scored an average of 17 points higher than their non-immigrant counterparts, and had lower attrition rates. Spurred by patriotism or the promise of a faster citizenship track, or both, Mavni filled so quickly that the military had to turn away thousands of potential applicants.

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