These Recruits Were Promised Citizenship in Exchange for Military Service. Now They Fear the US Has Forgotten Them – By Richard Sisk (Military.com) / Mar 13 2021
For a small group of young immigrants who were pitched a dream of gaining U.S. citizenship through military service, even a call home can jeopardize their status and flag them to the FBI.
That’s life for the roughly 100 would-be Americans who enlisted under the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest program. Started as a way to woo talented youths from other countries who could fill key military skill gaps, it has now become a drawn-out limbo fraught with security Catch-22s for those waiting months or years for background screenings to clear.
“What’s the big deal? Yes, I talk to my mom [back in China],” said Sen Li, one of the non-citizens aggressively recruited for MAVNI. He has taken the oath of enlistment, but has been waiting more than five years for a shipment date to basic training.
“Basically, they failed me because they think I have foreign contacts.”
His Chinese parents are the foreign contacts.
