Pentagon has reopened a program through which immigrants in the United States on temporary visas, will be allowed to serve in the US Army. Thousands of immigrants had been signing petitions on Facebook, requesting Pentagon to permit them to join the US Army. However, it is well known that the foreign nationals in the United States are ineligible to join the army and the US citizens and Green Card holders alone are eligible to serve in the US Army. But now the Pentagon has reopened the “Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest”, program and it will recruit educated and skilled immigrants.
This program was earlier active for one year and it was terminated in the year 2010. Now the Pentagon has announced that it will recruit 1,500 legal immigrants on temporary visas, with medical and language skills. This program had been reopened, because immigrants in the US Army are found to be well qualified and good performers. And this program is open to immigrants who hold valid temporary visas.
Apart from getting a chance to serve in the US Army, these immigrants will also become eligible to become naturalized US citizens. They are likely to become eligible for US citizenship, at the end of their training period. But the other immigrants will have to wait for years to become citizens of the United States.
A spokeswoman for the Pentagon, Eileen Lainez, said that the US Army requires surgeons, dental practitioners and psychology professionals. Similarly, the army is also looking for people with language skills and people who are well versed in 44 different languages. But the US Army will recruit immigrants only after they undergo strict security background checks. Moreover, immigrants who look forward to serve in the US Army must pass the entrance tests and they must be high school graduates. Likewise, they must have been residing in the country for the past two years.
Furthermore, legal immigrants who enlist as officers will have to serve for a minimum of six or four years and people who fail to serve for that particular period will lose their US citizenship. Many immigrants in the United States are eagerly waiting to get a chance to serve in the US Army and they are also awaiting to become citizens of the great nation. And they are not worried about taking risks as they can become a part of the country if they are enlisted as officers.