Immigration policies disrupt recruitment program

WASHINGTON — Stricter Trump administration immigration policies have stymied Pentagon plans to restart a program that allowed thousands of people with critical medical or Asian and African language skills to join the military and become American citizens, according to several U.S. officials.

The decade-old program has been on hold since 2016 amid concerns that immigrant recruits were not being screened well enough, and security threats were slipping through the system. Defense officials shored up the vetting process, and planned to relaunch the program last month.

But there was an unexpected barrier when Homeland Security officials said they would not be able to protect new immigrant recruits from being deported when their temporary visas expired after they signed a contract to join the military, the U.S. officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

The program is called Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program. The plan to restart it was backed by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who believes that noncitizens can bring key skills, language abilities, and cultural knowledge to the military.

Over the past 10 years, the military services have recruited more than 10,000 immigrants through the program.

When asked about the latest developments, Air Force Maj. Carla Gleason, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said, “the unique skill sets these individuals bring is one of the reasons the U.S. military is the world’s premier fighting force.” She had no comment on the internal discussions to relaunch the program.

President Trump has made tighter controls on immigration, both legal and illegal, an important element of his administration.