Young immigrants who have been given a special reprieve from deportation and who have certain language or medical skills may apply to join the U.S. military through a pilot program that includes an expedited path to citizenship, the Pentagon recently announced.
For the first time, the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program will consider applicants who have been granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
Started by the Obama administration in 2012, DACA gives renewable two-year deportation deferrals and work permits to immigrants who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children, who have graduated from high school here and who have not been convicted of any felonies.
Nationwide, 580,859 people have received DACA as of the end of June. Of those, 18,150 live in Georgia.
It’s unclear how many of them could be eligible to enlist in the military. But the military’s recruitment program is authorized to accept no more than 1,500 a year. About 2,900 people have enlisted through the program since it began in 2008.
Applicants must have certain medical skills or be able to speak one of 44 “strategic” languages, including Arabic, Pashto or Urdu. Not on the list is Spanish, the language spoken by most immigrants who have been granted DACA.
The U.S. Defense Department “has a critical need for qualified healthcare professionals and individuals with certain language capabilities, as well as associated cultural backgrounds,” Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen, a spokesman for the agency, said in an email. “We do not know how many people with the required skills will apply to enter the military and therefore do not have an estimate of how many people this will potentially impact.”
Jessica Wright, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, issued a memo last week, extending the program until the end of September of 2016 and announcing DACA recipients could be considered for the first time.
The recruitment program also considers applications from legal permanent residents, asylees and refugees. Applicants must pass the Armed Forces Qualification Test as well as a language test.
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