Officials put the program on hold in 2016. Some felt that the military wasn’t screening immigrant recruits thoroughly enough. They feared that they might be allowing threats into the country and the military. Gleason said the program “was vulnerable to an unacceptable level of risk from insider threats such as espionage, terrorism, and other criminal activity.”
The FBI has investigated over 20 MAVNI recruits since 2013. Army Secretary Mark Esper says that 80 percent of immigrants who apply gain approval.
Current State of MAVNI
Pentagon officials planned to restart the program this month. Homeland Security officials, however, said that they could not protect new immigrant recruits from deportation proceedings once their temporary visas expired. An anonymous Homeland Security official said the agency would review each case individually. But the fact remains that new immigrants serving under MAVNI could be deported if their visas lapsed.
Congress also passed a new law for 2019 saying that each branch of the military can only recruit 1,000 immigrants per year.
The Role of Immigration Laws
The Trump Administration has ordered more detailed background checks for immigrants. When an immigrant applies for MAVNI, it takes the military even longer to conduct an investigation. Many of the checks go uncompleted before the immigrants’ visas expire.
