5 Things to Know About Immigrants in the Military

1| New policies made naturalization increasingly harder for immigrant recruits

Federal law allows foreign-born individuals who serve on active duty or in any Reserve Components (such as the Navy Reserves or Army National Guard) to naturalize and secure U.S. citizenship after completing one year of honorable service during peacetime, or immediately if serving during designated “periods of hostility,” such as the War on Terrorism (which began on September 11, 2001 and continues today).

In 2017, the Trump Administration restricted this expedited citizenship process by implementing new mandatory wait times before the Department of Defense may issue the “honorable service” paperwork that immigrant service members must have in order to apply for citizenship. Enlistees were ordered to serve at least six months and complete additional background and security checks before they could even begin the naturalization process, and some even had to apply from abroad while deployed, making it significantly more difficult to prepare the required paperwork, fingerprints, and interviews.

On August 25, 2020, a federal judge ruled that the mandatory wait times are illegal, vacating the policy and ordering the Department of Defense to certify service within 30 days of a request. However, the damage had been done.

2| Honorable service does not always guarantee approval for naturalization

For those who manage to complete the application process, approval for naturalization is not guaranteed. In fact, during the Trump Administration, USCIS was denying military naturalization applications at a higher rate than civilian applications. According to USCIS, in the third quarter of FY 2019, one in five military applications were denied, twice the rate for civilian denials. However, that trend appears to be shifting back; denial rates for military naturalizations fell to 8% in FY 2020, lower than the 11% average for civillian applications.

According to research from the ACLU of California, many military applications are denied because the applicants are not found to demonstrate "good moral character," a specific term in immigration law, most likely because of previous criminal convictions. Under current law, honorable service is not sufficient to prove "good moral character," and in fact, being convicted of an "aggravated felony" (another immigration term that encompasses numerous types of convictions) can permanently prevent an immigrant from being able to demonstrate "good moral character."

As the ACLU explains, "this is striking given that only 15 percent of civilian naturalization applications are denied due to 'good moral character' violations, a difference which likely reflects the degree to which veterans struggle with addiction and violence." The report also points out that "16 percent of military naturalizations applications were denied for failing to follow through on their applications, likely due to deployments." The ACLU also found that many veterans mistakenly believed (some based on false promises from military recruiters) that they were automatically citizens based on their service.

3| Immigrants who enlisted to earn citizenship have lost status and face deportation

Some immigrants who hold critical language and medical skills were invited to enlist in the military with a promise of citizenship; now, the government has changed the terms on them. The suspension of the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program has prevented thousands of immigrants from becoming citizens, and has exposed many who had enlisted to the danger of losing their legal status and being subject to deportation.

In the final months of the Obama Administration, the Department of Defense implemented new vetting requirements for existing MAVNI recruits so onerous that the program ground to a halt. Admission of new recruits was suspended, and current participants were frozen in place, waiting indefinitely to begin training or to be deployed, qualifications they needed in order to qualify for naturalization.

After taking office, the Trump Administration began working to end the program entirely, and the following year, the Republican-controlled Congress included a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that effectively barred enlisted soldiers from qualifying for MAVNI positions, a final stake in the heart of the program.

Many individuals who had enrolled in MAVNI before the new changes took place were frozen in place, their deployments delayed indefinitely. In the meantime, some who had been promised a pathway to citizenship have lost their immigration status while waiting for deployment and now face the threat of deportation.

4| Citizenship is appropriate recognition of the contributions and sacrifices immigrants make in their service

Immigrants contribute valuable skills and experience to the military’s ranks in areas like technology, engineering, medicine, and foreign language knowledge and cultural understandings (particularly valuable in complex regions like the Middle East). These contributions are important at a time when the U.S. military needs more individuals to serve; for example, in 2018 the Army missed its recruiting goal for the first time since 2005.

Most importantly, these individuals are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice by putting their lives at risk in defense of our nation. When enlisting, recruits swear an oath to protect the United States and the Constitution, an oath that's nearly identical to the oath taken for naturalization. This commitment represents extraordinary patriotism and honorable service to others, and our country should meet this commitment in good faith by offering a clear, expedited pathway to citizenship for immigrant service members.

In a 2006 hearing on the contributions of immigrants to the military, Senator John McCain pointed out that immigrants make up 20% of Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, and were responsible for developing key technologies like the helicopter and the submarine. He noted that, “If we do not provide the same opportunities for future immigrants that were provided for our forefathers, it is an affront to our national ideals. We owe these servicemen more for the sacrifices that they have made for this country.”