Immigrants headed to boot camp booted
Doctoral student dismayed by his sudden discharge
SAN FRANCISCO — Growing up in eastern China, Panshu Zhao fell in love with America. He read the Bible his parents gave him, watched Hollywood movies and studied the ideals of democracy. He jumped at the chance to attend graduate school at Texas A&M University.
In 2016, Zhao enlisted in the U.S. Army as part of a special recruitment program offering immigrants in the country legally a path to citizenship. The future, he said, was bright.
Now, he’s one of dozens of immigrant recruits and reservists struggling with abrupt, often unexplained military discharges and canceled contracts.
They traded being willing to risk their lives for the prospect of U.S. citizenship, a timeworn exchange that’s drawn linguists, medical specialists and thousands of other immigrants to the military since the Revolutionary War.
“It’s just like you’re dropped from heaven to hell,” Zhao said Friday.
It’s unclear how many men and women who enlisted through the special recruitment program have been ousted from the Army, but immigration attorneys told the AP that they know of more than 40 recruits who recently have been discharged or whose status has become questionable.
Some recruits say that they were given no reason for their discharges.
Others said the Army informed them they’d been labeled as security risks because they have relatives abroad or because the Defense Department had not completed background checks on them.
The Pentagon said Friday that there has been no policy change since last year, when Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said no one could enter basic training without completion of a background investigation.
And Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said that any enlistee entering the military undergoes security screenings.
Zhao, 31, said his “ship out” date to basic training was delayed for two years as he underwent background checks, counterintelligence interviews and rigorous reviews added as requirements for immigrant enlistees.
He continued to pursue his doctorate in geography at Texas A&M but also hit the gym, prepping for boot camp. And he trained — in uniform — with his unit.
He had military identification and health care, he said.
In April, he visited Washington, D.C., for the first time, touring the White House and visiting the Republican National Committee.
That same month, he got word from his unit commander: He was being discharged. He was told simply that his discharge was “uncharacterized,” he said.
Immigration attorneys told the AP that many of the immigrants let go in recent weeks received an “uncharacterized discharge” — which is neither dishonorable nor honorable.