This one's on Mattis and it's a bad one

[bigtree]

Alex Horton‏ @AlexHortonTX
"It’s a dumpster fire ruining people’s lives." The Army vaporized contracts signed by hundreds of immigrant recruits https://t.co/JBYFc4AsrW

U.S. Army recruiters have abruptly canceled enlistment contracts for hundreds of foreign-born military recruits since last week, upending their lives and potentially exposing many to deportation, according to several affected recruits and former military officials familiar with their situation.

Many of these enlistees have waited years to join a troubled recruitment program designed to attract highly skilled immigrants into the service in exchange for fast-track citizenship.

Now recruits and experts say that recruiters are shedding their contracts to free themselves from an onerous enlistment process, which includes extensive background investigations, to focus on individuals who can more quickly enlist and thus satisfy strict recruitment targets.

Margaret Stock, a retired Army officer who led creation of the immigration recruitment program, told The Washington Post that she has received dozens of frantic messages from recruits this week, with many more reporting similar action in Facebook groups. She said hundreds could be affected.

“It’s a dumpster fire ruining people’s lives. The magnitude of incompetence is beyond belief,” she said. “We have a war going on. We need these people.”

read: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/09/15/army-kills-contracts-for-hundreds-of-immigrant-recruits-sources-say-some-face-deportation/?utm_term=.e1b775c9fedb

Howard Dean‏ @GovHowardDean
This one is on Mattis and it's a bad one.

[Achilleaze]

1. How many active duty members of the Armed Forces were

originally foreign-born military recruits? Might not this move send them a message? Might not this cause a division in the ranks?

So much divide-and-conquer crap comes rolling downhill from the KGOP command - from their ignoble republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief on down the line...

[Hortensis]

2. This is regrettable but no surprise, reported as possible at beginning of July.

NPR:

The plan under consideration is laid out in a memo from Pentagon officials to Defense Secretary James Mattis. In the memo, obtained by NPR, high-level personnel and intelligence officials cite security concerns and inadequate vetting of recruits under a program called Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest, or MAVNI.

The memo also cites "the potential threat posed by individuals who may have a higher risk of connections to Foreign Intelligence Services," and it refers to an "elevated" risk of an insider threat.

The recruitment program began in 2009 to attract immigrants with medical or language skills, such as surgeons or Arabic speakers. It allows visa holders, asylees and refugees to bypass the green card process to become U.S. citizens.

The founder of the MAVNI program, retired Lt. Col. Margaret Stock, said the security concerns are overblown. "If you were a bad guy who wanted to infiltrate the Army, you wouldn't risk the many levels of vetting required in this program," she said.

http://www.npr.org/2017/07/03/535342867/pentagon-considers-canceling-program-that-recruits-immigrant-soldiers

Not actually 100% sure about that last. But those who didn't want this should have voted all-out for our Democratic candidates.

I'm sorry this is happening to these people, but fwiw, let's remember that the Army has no duty to induct civilians to protect them from deportation or to provide them with education. Uncertainties surrounding some of these people's legal ability to serve in future should the loose flywheel in the WH strike also have to be a real, genuine concern.

Btw, that entire WaPo article was published in Stars and Stripes, suggesting a great deal of agreement. No surprise there either.

[keithbvadu2]

3. Easily replaced by recruiting among College Republicans... Right?