Wednesday, September 6, 2017

This DREAMer Is Ready to Go to the Army. Will Trump Let Him?

 
By Michael Daly

They speak languages deemed of particular importance to national security. But as they wait for basic training, Trump canceled DACA—and possibly their dreams of serving.

Among those who watched the smoke rise from the World Trade Center into a perfect blue sky on 9/11 were an Army Reserve officer on the cliffs at West Point and a 7-year-old undocumented immigrant on the street in Queens.

The officer was Maj. Margaret Stock, and in the days afterward she decided that the attacks might have been prevented if the military had not been so lacking in personnel fluent in foreign languages such as those spoken by the plotters.

Stock set about creating the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program, which offered expedited citizenship to immigrants who speak languages of particular importance in terms of national security. The program was also open to physicians, nurses, and dentists who could offset a longtime shortage of medical personnel in the armed services. The overall principle was simple.

“The whole idea of the program was to make sure we have enough people to protect the country,” Stock told The Daily Beast.

Click here for the full article. 

Source: The Daily Beast 

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