Pentagon is renewing a program which will make it easier for foreign-born recruits to get U.S. citizenship. In return, they will work as doctors, nurses and language experts. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was the one who made the announcement in regard to the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest, known as MAVNI program, Fox News reports.
“We are taking the steps obviously to save the program, if it can be saved. If it can, you do due diligence for it to make sure what you are bringing in is what you think you are bringing in,” Mattis said.
MAVNI was halted last year because Pentagon estimated that the program didn’t have proper safeguards in place against potential insider threats. Military Times reports that more than 100,000 recruits have entered the military through the program since 2009.
Those who support MAVNI say that it is a great opportunity for the military to recruit legal immigrants with vita skills, while those who criticize it, say that the program has no adequate screening that left the army vulnerable.
Recruits will have to complete the background check before being shipped to basic training. Mattis’ announcement is the first clear sign the Pentagon has backed away from internal recommendations to kill the MAVNI program and scuttle the contracts of those waiting to serve, The Washington Post reported.
As Fox News reported a couple of months ago, Defense Department investigators discovered potential security risks in the MAVNI program after a year-long investigation. MAVNI’s problems included a vetting backlog that led to enrollment of many soldiers prior to completion of their background checks, and an attendant “drift” in the program’s criteria, with MAVNI being used as a vehicle for the hiring of workers who did not possess the specialized skills the program was created to exploit.
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