Soldiers Fight Pentagon for Promised Citizenship

WASHINGTON (CN) – Three non-citizens serving in the U.S. Army filed a federal complaint Friday accusing the Department of Defense of unlawfully refusing to certify their eligibility for naturalization after promising them a fast-track to citizenship.

Mahlon Kirwa, Santhosh Meenhallimath and Ashok Viswanathan filed the class action against the Defense Department and Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

“As non-citizen soldiers serving honorably during wartime, plaintiffs have an absolute statutory right to apply to become naturalized U.S. citizens, but defendants are refusing to certify their naturalization application eligibility as required by law, leaving these soldiers to languish in immigration limbo, notwithstanding their ongoing military service to this nation,” the 32-page complaint states.

The three men, who serve in the Selected Reserve of the Ready Reserve, were recruited into the Army under the 2008 Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program (MANVI), which promises non-U.S. citizens with special language or medical skills deemed vital to U.S. national interests an expedited path to citizenship if they serve honorably during wartime.

Federal law allows Kirwa, Meenhallimath and Viswanathan to apply for naturalization, but in order to do that they need the Pentagon to complete certification form N-426.

According to the lawsuit, the citizenship opportunity provided a powerful incentive for their enlistment, the terms of which require them to serve for eight years.

But the three soldiers say the Defense Department has implemented a new policy of refusing to issue that form on the basis that the MANVI soldiers have not served in active-duty capacity yet, even though the law does not require that.


https://www.courthousenews.com/soldiers-fight-pentagon-promised-citizenship/