These Recruits Were Promised Citizenship in Exchange for Military Service. Now They Fear the US Has Forgotten Them
A naturalization ceremony at the Army Community Services office on Fort Carson, Colorado, Sep. 20, 2019. (Sidnie Smith/U.S. Army)
13 Mar 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 more than 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 we owe foreign-born recruits Ankit Gajurel March 12 A soldier holds an American flag prior to the start of an oath of citizenship ceremony in the General George Patton Museum s Abrams Auditorium at Fort Knox, Ky., Sept. 19, 2018. (DoD) In May 2016, I signed an eight-year contract with the U.S. Army Reserves. A native of Nepal, I’d recently received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. But even with my in-demand STEM skills, I knew it wasn’t easy to secure visa sponsorship from an employer. When a friend told me about a special military program for immigrants, I contacted a recruiter. He presented me with a simple and honorable exchange: a pathway to American citizenship in return for defending the country I hoped to call home.