The armed forces have enlisted nearly 70,000 noncitizens since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and, as a group, their washout rate is much lower than that of American citizens who enlist, according to CNA, a think tank that studied attrition data gathered by the Defense Manpower Data Center.
Within three months of entering active service, 8.2 percent of citizen enlistees have been discharged. That is more than double the 4 percent attrition rate of noncitizens who volunteer to serve in America’s military.
At the three-year mark, 28 percent of citizens have left before completing initial service obligations while the washout rate for noncitizens remains significantly lower, at 16 percent. And the disparity widens by the four-year mark, with 32 percent of citizen recruits having been discharged versus only 18 percent of noncitizen accessions.
“These findings are consistent with the anecdotal evidence we gathered in our interviews of recruiters and noncitizen recruits,” wrote researchers Molly McIntosh and Seema Sayala. “The interviews revealed that, relative to citizen recruits, noncitizen recruits generally have a stronger attachment to serving the United States, which they now consider to be ‘their country,’ and (they) have a better work ethic.”
Given their lower attrition rate, which saves on recruiting and training costs, and the diversity of language and cultural skills that noncitizens have, CNA recommends that the services develop strategies to recruit more noncitizens, particularly as the U.S. economy improves, recruiting gets more difficult and demand stays high for foreign language skills. Suggested strategic targets are more non-citizens from India, Pakistan and China because of their educational attainment and command of English.
The report, “Non-Citizens in the Enlisted U.S. Military,” says that, given declining U.S. fertility rates, “the only source of net growth in the U.S. recruiting-age population is projected to be immigration” in coming decades. CNA estimates that the current size of the potential pool of eligible noncitizens, ages 18 to 29, is roughly 1.2 million. Recruiters who enlist a sizable number of noncitizens say it’s not driven today by a particular strategy. They just happen to be assigned to areas with a large non-citizen population.
Noncitizens can enlist if they hold legal permanent resident status, have education equivalent to a high school diploma and can speak acceptable English. And since July 2002, under an executive order signed by then-President George W. Bush, any noncitizen recruit is eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship after just a day of honorable service during a time of war including the current fight in Afghanistan. Previously, noncitizen service members had to serve for three years to apply for citizenship.
The Air Force is the only service that denies reenlistment to any member who fails to gain citizenship by the end of their initial service obligation. That incentive results in about 70 percent of Air Force noncitizen recruits attaining citizenship during their first term, which is about 40 percentage points higher than the average reported across the branches.
Noncitizen recruits with families, and those who are minorities or women, are more likely to attain citizenship in their first term. CNA believes the likely reason for this is a desire to increase post-service opportunities in the private sector.
More than 125 service members who enlisted as non-citizens since the attacks of Sept. 11 have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, a senior defense official told Congress last summer.
Among CNA recommendation is one that the Department of Defense and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services share information more effectively. Defense officials aren’t always told when citizenship for a member is approved. And the USCIS isn’t notified when noncitizen recruits wash out.
“USCIS has the authority to revoke citizenship if a service member leaves the military with other-than-honorable discharge before completing five years,” the report explains in a footnote. “To our knowledge, however, USCIS does not have sufficient visibility on attrition [to] enforce this, nor does this currently seem to be a priority for USCIS.”
In November 2008 the services gained authority to recruit a total of 1,000 non-citizens who lack legal residency status but have skills “vital to the national interest” such as fluency in critical languages. This program was expanded later to 1,500 more recruits in 2009. Most are in the Army.
The CNA study doesn’t touch on the DREAM Act, which the Obama administration supports but Republicans in Congress have blocked. That bill would allow immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally at age 15 or younger to earn permanent resident status by completing at least two years of military service or two years of college.
Defense officials support the bill, citing history back to the Revolutionary War of non-citizens gaining citizenship through service. Almost half of Army enlistees in the 1840s were non-citizens and more than 660,000 veterans became naturalized citizens from 1862 through 2000.
To comment, email milupdate@aol.com, write to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120-1111 or go to www.militaryupdate.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
