Following Donald Trump making Jefferson Beauregard Sessions IIII announce the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the Pentagon has no idea what to do about the approximately 900 DACA recipients who are either serving or have signed contracts to serve in Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MANVI), a program “created in 2009 to allow foreign nationals to join the U.S. military if they could demonstrate certain skills”:
The hundreds of DACA recipients who signed up for the military make up only a small fraction of the nearly 800,000 so-called “Dreamers” approved for the protections. Still, they are in a unique position. If they lose DACA, they would be unable to work and likely unable to fulfill their commitments to serve in the United States military. But the DOD has not yet announced how it would deal with them.
Just last month, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis put a temporary freeze to Trump’s vile ban on trans service members, and the commander-in-chief who got five Vietnam War deferrals is set on again pushing out Americans who love their country and want to serve. And despite this anti-immigrant attack, activist Astrid Silva points out DACA recipients and undocumented men are still required to sign up for Selective Service.
“Dreamers have long pushed for the ability to join the military in larger numbers, pointing out that many of them are ineligible for the MAVNI program,” notes immigration reporter Elise Foley. “Now, Dreamers may lose their ability to serve even there—and they may be at risk of being forced out of the country entirely after six months.”
The answer is simple. Pass the DREAM Act. Let them serve.